LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



New Testament Conversions: 



a series of sermons 




REV. Of H^ERBERDING, A. M. 



PASTOR OF ST. MARK'S ENGLISH EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, FARGO, 

DAKOTA, AUTHOR OF •* THE WAY OF SALVATION IN THE 

LUTHERAN CHURCH." 



PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 




LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

PHU^ADEXyPHIA, PA. 
*0 



-frl 






Copyrighted, 1889, 

BY 

G. H. GERBERDING. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



TO 

THE CAUSE OF A HEARTY, HEALTHY, 
LIVING PIETY, 
WHICH SPRINGS NOT FROM SUPERFICIAL SENTIMENTALISM, OR 
OCCASIONAL EMOTIONALISM; A PIETY THAT GROWS OUT 
OF A CORRECT UNDERSTANDING, A TRUE APPRE- 
CIATION AND A PRAYERFUL, DILIGENT USE 
OF THE CHRIST-ORDAINED MEANS OF 
GRACE, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 9 



SERMON I. 

Conversion : Its Nature, Necessity and Efficient 
Agencies 15 



SERMON II. 
The Woman of Samaria 31 



SERMON III. 

The Prodigal Son 43 

(v) 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

SERMON IV. 
The Pubucan 57 



SERMON V. 
Zaccheus 71 



SERMON VI. 
Peter, Eai,i, and Re-Conversion of 85 

SERMON VII. 
The Dying Thief 101 



SERMON VIII. 
Tests and Fruits of Peter's Re-Conversk>n . ... 117 

SERMON IX. 
The Three Thousand 133 



CONTENTS. Vll 



PAGE 

SERMON X. 



The Ethiopian Eunuch 151 



SERMON XI. 
Paul's Conversion 167 



SERMON XII. 
Cornelius 185 



SERMON XIII. 
Sergius Paulus 201 



SERMON XIV. 
Lydia 215 



SERMON XV. 
The Jailer 233 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

SERMON XVI. 
A Spurious Conversion 251 

SERMON XVII. 
Almost Converted • 263 



INTRODUCTION. 



"Of the making of books, there is no end." If 
this was true in Solomon's day, how much more 
true in our day? 

The saying of the wise man can also be applied 
to many special departments of literature. It can 
be said with truth, "of the making of sermon 
books, there is no end." Why, then, send forth 
another Book of Sermons ? 

Does it bring out truths unknown before? Does 
it occupy ground unused before? Does it treat of 
subjects not handled in the past ? No ! It sets 
forth truth as old as Revelation. It tills in fields 
that have been broken and dragged and rolled by 
all sorts of ploughmen and teams and implements. 
It treats of a trite and worn and common subject. 

God was treating of it and aiming at it when He 
said in Eden: "Adam, where art thou?" God's 
Book is full of it. Books and sermons without 
number have been written upon it. 

Why, then, a new book of sermons on con- 
version? 

(9) 



IO INTRODUCTION. 

Because not all that has been written and 
preached on the subject is truth. Much of it is the 
saddest and most dangerous caricature of truth. 
Few subjects have been more abused, misrepre- 
sented and misunderstood. A veritable flood of 
ruinous error has emanated from pen and pulpit on 
this subject. A sad wreckage of doubt, gloom, 
skepticism, despair, insanity and self-destruction is 
the result. Much of the current twaddle is the 
shallowest sentimentalism or the wildest fanat- 
icism, with all the various baseless gradations be- 
tween. It tends to confuse the mind, to harden 
the heart, to quench the spirit, to ruin the soul. 

Here, on the one hand, are our cold, humani- 
tarian moralists. These are the apostles of culture 
and progress. They would evolve a dignified and 
proud manliness out of the natural man. Man is 
too great, and grand, and good, to need a re-crea- 
tion — a new heart and life! Conversion, with 
them, is nothing but a laying aside of bad habits, 
an outward reformation. 

On the other hand, here is a whole host of 
would-be evangelizers. They seem to consider it 
their special mission and commission to "convert 
sinners." They often become quite proficient in 
their avocation. They can bring about hundreds 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

of conversions in an evening. They get up a re- 
vival in the home church, or start out to revive a 
town or city. We have heard some of them assert 
how they have converted whole communities, and 
how they were going to "capture" such a town or 
city "for Jesus!" 

With them, conversion is a rousing of the feel- 
ings, a wave of emotion, a burst of excitement. 

While they will speak in thunder tones of the 
necessity of conversion and of the damnation of 
the unconverted, they rarely even attempt to ex- 
plain the nature of conversion. Ask them what 
it is, and they can give at best very vague and un- 
satisfactory answers. Ask them how it is brought 
about, what its agencies and instrumentalities are, 
and they don't know. Ask them what its evi- 
dences are, and they don't tell you. They are full 
of pious phrases, and earnest exhortations, and 
touching stories, and tearful pleadings. But the 
teaching of the divine Word on this all-important 
subject they know not ! 

There is still another class in the Church who 
need to give renewed attention to this subject. 

Repelled by the fanaticism and the vagaries of 
the aforenamed class, they have gone to the other 
extreme. While the former make a hobby of the 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

subject, these latter almost ignore it. They don't 
preach much conversion. They seem to be almost 
afraid of the term. They speak much of truth, 
and Grace, and faith, and righteousness. And 
against all this we would be the last to say one 
word. But to neglect or ignore the subject of con- 
version is certainly a very grievous and dangerous 
mistake. It may result in a false security in the 
unconverted — of whom there are certainly many 
among the hearers of every preacher. It may re- 
sult in the loss of souls, which will be required at 
the pastor's hand. 

In these godless and worldly times we must earn- 
estly and diligently preach conversion. We must 
insist on its necessity. We must reason, exhort, 
convince, beseech, and plead; "Turn ye, turn ye; 
why will ye die f ' ' 

We must explain from the divine Word what is 
the nature of this change. We must labor to have 
the plainest hearer understand this vital subject and 
his personal relation to it. We must show how 
God, who alone has the power to give the new life, 
yet has thrown all the responsibility on man, by 
putting within his reach the life-bearing means of 
Grace. 

It was the lot of the writer of this book to be 



INTRODUCTION. 1 3 

brought up in the midst of revivalistic surroundings 
and preaching. As a pastor also his lot has been, 
at times, cast among proselyting zealots. His 
Church, his faith, and his people, have been rudely 
attacked and slandered. It became necessary either 
to give way or to defend himself and his faith. 
This made it necessary to study and examine the 
whole subject of conversion and experimental re- 
ligion. He has enjoyed the happy experience of 
finding that the more he studied the matter in the 
Word of God, the more did he discover that the 
Church whose name he bears holds, confesses, and 
teaches on this point also nothing but the pure 
truth as it is in Jesus. It has been a source of the 
greatest delight and comfort to discover how the 
scriptural doctrine meets every difficulty, clears 
away all doubt, harmonizes seeming contradictions 
between divine sovereignty and human responsibil- 
ity, giving all the glory to God, and laying all the 
responsibility on man. 

It was to help others, who perhaps had difficulties 
on this vital subject, that he prepared and preached 
the series of sermons contained in this book. 

It is with the hope that they may be helpful to 
others also that he offers these sermons to the 
public. He believes that in this direction the field 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

has not been overworked, and there is room for 
this book of sermons. 

That it may help to lead some confused and 
groping ones into the light; that it may counteract 
dangerous error; that it may show the beauty, sim- 
plicity and satisfying nature of the teachings of 
the Word; and that it may become instrumental 
in leading to true conversions, is the hope and 
prayer of The Author. 

Fargo, Dakota, Easter, 1889. 



SERMON I. 



CONVERSION: 

Its Nature, Necessity, and Efficient Agencies. 

Acts iii. 19. 



Acts iii ig. Be Converted. 



SERMON I. 

A Smau, text, but a big subject. A subject of 
the most vital importance. A subject round which 
cluster the issues of eternity. 

Not only is it a subject of general interest; it is 
a subject of the most intense personal concern; it is 
a subject in which each one that reads these lines 
is much more deeply concerned than in the matter 
of making a living, getting on in the world, hav- 
ing a reputation in the community, or being well 
booked up in the questions of the day. All these 
questions taken together are of no weight at all 
when compared with the question, "How about 
my conversion? Am I in a converted state?" 
Jesus says, Matt, xviii. 3: Except ye be converted 
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into 
the kingdom of heaven. 

Yes, dear reader, the question of your eternal 
weal or woe depends on the question of your con- 
version. 

We .need not stop therefore to argue that each 

one ought to have clear ideas on this vital subject. 

And yet there are few subjects on which many 
2* (17) 



1 8 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

well meaning persons are more in the dark. Worse 
still, often those who talk most about it and are 
loudest in urging its necessity, know least about 
it Why this should be so we can scarcely tell. 
It is certainly not because the Word of God is so 
misty that no one can know what it teaches. It 
must be because many are unwilling to search the 
Scriptures with a view to bow to their authority, 
and take their own reason captive. Too many 
would rather take their feelings and impulses for 
guides and standards, than the teachings of the 
Divine Word. We desire to study and examine 
this subject in the light of that Word, and inquire 
into the nature of this change, its necessity and 
how it is brought about, and finally some variations 
in the process. 

If we inquire first into the meaning of the term, 
we find that to convert means "to turn," "to turn 
round," "to change about." We find this is also 
the clear meaning of the Latin word which is the 
root of the English. The same thing is true of the 
Greek word (emerpeten) translated ' ' convert ' ' in the 
New Testament. Its simplest meaning is "to 
turn round." We, therefore, find that the same 
word which is in some places translated ' ' to con- 
vert," is in other places translated "to turn." 



NATURE, NECESSITY AND AGENCIES. 1 9 

As if a traveler discovers that he is on the wrong 
road, he turns, faces about, and gets on the right 
road — so the unconverted sinner, when he realizes 
that he is traveling on the broad road that leadeth 
to destruction, turns or is turned round, and gets 
on the narrow way that leadeth unto life. 

If now we inquire more closely into the nature 
of this turning or changing about, we find that it 
comprises two distinct steps or parts. The first is 
penitence or contrition. The sinner realizes what 
he is, where he is, and whither he is tending. He 
realizes his lost and ruined and guilty state. See- 
ing as he never saw before the deep depravity of 
his own heart, the heinousness and damnableness 
of its sin, the justness of the judgment, and wrath 
to which it exposes him, he loathes that sin, he 
mourns over it, he desires to flee from it, and 
longs for deliverance. This is what the Bible calls 
penitence or repentance ; though sometimes the 
word repentance is used in a broader sense, and 
covers the whole process of conversion. This pen- 
itence or heartfelt sorrow for sin, and earnest desire 
to be free from it, is the first step in conversion. 

The second step is faith in Christ. The penitent 
heart longing for deliverance, crying out for for- 
giveness, has Jesus the Saviour from sin presented 



20 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

to it. It looks to Him. It begins to realize that 
He by His life and death has wrought out a com- 
plete salvation. It realizes that this Saviour has 
become its own substitute, borne and atoned for all 
its guilt. It reaches out and lays hold and casts 
itself upon that Saviour, and cries "Lord, if thou 
wilt, thou canst make me clean, ' ' and then, ' k Lord, 
I believe, help thou mine tmbelief" and then, 
' ' My Lord and my God. ' ' This is faith ; it is the 
second step in conversion. In the first step, the 
sinner saw and realized that he was on the road to 
destruction, earnestly desired to get off that road, 
and began to turn his back upon it. In the second 
step, he saw the narrow way that leadeth unto life, 
and confidently set foot thereon. He is now con- 
verted or turned from darkness to light and from 
the power of Satan unto God. 

Penitence then is not something that goes before 
conversion, and faith something that follows after, 
and conversion itself a mysterious something sand- 
wiched in between; but penitence and faith are 
the two component parts that make up conversion. 
Where the former is, there the latter — unless there 
be a violent rupture — is sure to follow. 

We inquire, in the next place, who needs this 
change? The self-evident answer certainly is, all 



NATURE, NECESSITY AND AGENCIES. 21 

who are not in a converted state; that is, all who 
do not have the elements or evidences of the new 
life in them. In other words, all who do not have 
in their hearts true penitence for sin, and true faith 
in Christ. Wherever we find true penitence and 
true faith, there we find a converted person; and, 
conversely, where these elements of the new life 
are wanting, there is an unconverted sinner. 

Now if we look for these elementary principles 
of the new life, we find that there are numbers of 
the children and youth of Christian parents, who 
certainly possess them. From their earliest recol- 
lection these young disciples hated and sorrowed 
over their sins. From tenderest childhood they 
trusted in and loved the dear Saviour. They can- 
not think of a time when they did not love Him. 
These are children of the covenant. They were 
consecrated and given to the Saviour in tender in- 
fancy. Believing parents had them carried to the 
baptismal font, where, with "the washing of re- 
generation" the "washing of water by the word" 
they were "born of water and of the Spirit" in 
that "baptism which doth now also save us" and 
thus "baptized into Christ." This was to them 
the birth, i. e., the feeble beginning of new life. 

The germs of the new life then and there im- 



22 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

planted by Christ's own ordinance, were afterwards 
carefully fostered and nurtured by the Word of God 
and prayer. Among the earliest conscious lessons 
that they learned from pious parents, were lessons 
about Christ and salvation and eternal life. Their 
parents realized that the promise is not only to 
them, but also to their children. Such children are 
children of the covenant. They belong to Christ 
since the day of their baptism. They are in line 
with Moses, and Samuel, aud Jeremiah, and John 
the Baptist, and Timothy. Their mothers are in 
the spiritual succession of Hannah, and Elizabeth, 
and Lois, and Eunice. 

Such children, aud the youth and adults who 
grow from such childhood, need no conversion. 
They are among the best Christians, the most 
spiritual and consecrated disciples, the most stead- 
fast and useful members of the Church of Christ. 
Oh, how many more of such, who need no conversion 
because they have the elements of the new life and 
are in a consecrated state, there might be ! How 
many more there would be, if, in this fast age, this 
age of new measures, and new methods, and new 
experiments in the churches, so many had not 
drifted away from the old foundations laid in God's 
Word! — if a large part of what still calls itself the 



NATURE, NECESSITY AND AGENCIES. 23 

Church of Jesus Christ had not repudiated the 
ancient Bible and church teaching concerning bap- 
tismal Grace, the baptismal covenant, prayerful 
home nurture, feeding the lambs in Sunday-school 
and Church. But, we digress. 

Not all who are baptized remain true to their 
baptismal covenant. Largely on account of the 
unscriptural notions and theories indicated above, 
many lose or throw away the Grace conferred in 
baptism. They become prodigal sons, wanderers 
from their Father's home and protecting care. All 
such need conversion. As a matter of course, also, 
all such as have never been baptized, and know 
nothing of true penitence and living faith. We 
insist, our Lutheran Church insists, in all her 
standards, that all such must be converted, or they 
will be eternally lost. 

There is absolutely no salvation, no heaven for 
those who remain and die in an unconverted state. 
Theirs is certainly a state of great peril. We in- 
quire now how is this change brought about? 
What are the means or agencies through which it 
is wrought? 

Here we remark, first of all, that no man can 
bring about this change by his own reason or 
strength. This must be accomplished, "not by 



24 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

might, i. e. , not by human might, nor by power, 
but by my spirit, saith the Lord. " "No man can 
say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." 

Conversion is a divine work. The Spirit of God 
must bring it about. How does He do it? Un- 
doubtedly, through the Word. Of that Word Jesus 
says, "The words that L speak unto you, they are 
spirit and they are life." The Word is the organ 
of the Spirit. We know of no operations of the 
Spirit' outside of the Word. We have never heard 
of a person under the influence of the Spirit pos- 
sessing the elements of the new life in a place 
where the Word had never gone. Only after the 
Word has gone into a heathen land, do we find the 
blessed influences of the Spirit there. 

That Word calls itself a "ministration of the 
Spirit, " " The power of God unto salvation. ' ' It 
claims to be "quick," i. e., living, " and powerful, 
and sharper than any two-edged sword." "Able 
to save the soul." It claims to have the force of 
"a hammer," the fervency of "afire," the life of 
a "seed," the refreshing power of "the rain and 
the dew." It says of itself that it "is perfect, con- 
verting the soul. ' ' 

We find further that the same divine operations, 
such as calling, enlightening, regenerating, sancti- 



NATURE, NECESSITY AND AGENCIES. 25 

fying, etc., are indiscriminately ascribed, some- 
times to the Spirit and again to the Word, evi- 
dently because the Spirit is in the Word and 
operates through it. 

This Word then is the instrument through which 
the Holy Spirit operates on the sinner's heart, and 
converts him. Penitence is generally brought 
about through the law. ' 'By the law is the knowl- 
edge of sin.'''' It is the great preacher and producer 
of repentance, and thus becomes " our schoolmaster 
to lead us to — or towards — Christ.'''' 

Faith is generally encouraged and developed by 
the Gospel. It holds up a crucified and risen 
Redeemer as the sinner's substitute and Saviour. 
It is generally while the penitent and yearning 
heart is contemplating the Word of the cross that 
"faith cometh by hearings and hearing by the 
word of God. ' ' 

Therefore it is the Word of God as the organ and 
instrument of the Spirit, that converts the sinner. 
What a beautifnl and simple method of Grace is 
thus presented by this true doctrine of the efficacy 
of the Word. The sinner cannot convert himself. 
What is he to do ? He is to come to the Word, 
prayerfully read it, hear it, ponder it: he is to be 
careful that he resist not, nor rid himself of its 



26 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

divine influence. It will do its own blessed work. 
It will awaken a sense of sin, true sorrow therefor, 
earnest longing for deliverance, and finally a joyful 
trust and resting in Christ. 

This doctrine solves and clears up and reconciles 
the relation of the sovereignty of God to the re- 
sponsibility of the sinner. It gives all the glory to 
God, and yet throws all the responsibility on man. 
It makes the way of salvation so clear and plain 
that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err 
therein. 

In conclusion we desire to notice some of the 
variations in the process of conversion. 

Here we remark first that there is a difference in 
the intensity of change. Some have more intense 
realization and abhorrence of their sin than others. 
Some have a more strong and joyful faith than 
others. With some the feelings predominate. 
With others the judgment controls. 

Again there are differences in the duration of the 
process. Some may see the awful depths of their 
sin and the greatness of their guilt at a glance. 
They may likewise see at once the availability of 
the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, reach out and 
vigorously lay hold of and rejoice in a personal 
Saviour. Others may be a long time in coming to 



NATURE, NECESSITY AND AGENCIES. 2J 

a sense of sin and helplessness and need of a 
Saviour. The Word of God may come to them, 
and at first make only a slight impression, perhaps 
a feeling of dissatisfaction with self and a little 
restlessness. Little by little their eyes are opened. 
Message after message conies to them. Deeper and 
clearer do they see into their lost and ruined and 
guilty state. At first they see, as through a mist, 
the offered Saviour. Brighter and brighter shines 
the light from the Word of God. At first only a 
tremulous look to the cross, then a timid reaching 
forth to it, then a steadier gaze and a surer grasp 
and a closer approach. And so "it shall be little by 
little" l [first the blade, then the ear, and then the 
full corn in the ear. ' ' It may be weeks or months 
before such persons can rest confidingly in a 
present and personal Saviour. 

In these matters it will not do to lay down 
arbitrary rules. Much depends on the natural 
temperament of the person. One is sanguine, im- 
pulsive, hasty. In him the feelings predominate 
over the judgment. With such a one the change 
is apt to be vivid, decisive and short. 

Another is of a cool, phlegmatic temperament. 
His feelings are not deep. He habitually weighs 
every matter brought to his attention most carefully. 



28 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

He never gets excited or does anything hastily. 
In such an one the change will likely be almost im- 
perceptible and slow. And yet, when this latter 
has once unreservedly accepted Christ as a personal 
Saviour, he is likely to be the more steadfast Chris- 
tian of the two. 

Again, in the work of conversion, much may de- 
pend on the former life of the person. One has 
wandered very far away. He has become a sinner 
above the Galileans. He has fallen deeply into 
shame and sin. 

Another has not so openly and flagrantly been a 
sinner exceedingly before the Lord. 

When the former has his eyes opened, he will be 
apt to be more deeply impressed with his guilt and 
need of a Saviour than the latter. The conversion 
of the one will probably be more strongly marked 
and sudden than the latter. 

11 There are diversities of operation, but the same 
Spirit that worketh all in ally To some, the 
Word of God comes like a hammer, or, as a fire. 
On others it drops as the rain, and distils as the 
dew. Into some hearts it cuts as the sword of the 
Spirit. 

They feel it piercing even to the dividing asundet 
of the joints and the marrow. Into other hearts it 



NATURE, NECESSITY AND AGENCIES. 29 

falls as a seed, and gently strikes its roots down- 
ward and sends its shoots upward. Or it is hid 
there like leaven, and only slowly and silently 
leavens the whole. 

It again follows, as a matter of course, that not 
every one can tell the exact time when and where 
he was converted. Some can. Zaccheus, and Saul 
of Tarsus, and the Philippian jailer, and the three 
thousand on the day of Pentecost, and others 
mentioned in the Bible, doubtless could always tell. 
But we do not believe that the apostles of Christ 
could tell,, neither could many others mentioned 
in the Bible. 

Neither does the Bible anywhere demand that 
we should. Else what of those mentioned above, 
who were children of God from infancy? What of 
those who cannot think of a time when they did 
not love the dear Saviour? Shall we say: "They 
are still in an unconverted state ?' ' Who will dare 
to say so? 

To go to such a trusting child of God with such 
a heartless assertion, would be to confuse the mind, 
to burden the heart and to quench the spirit. It is 
by just such baseless and arrogant assertions that 
many a promising spiritual life has been blighted 
in its budding, blasted in its growing, and ruined 



30 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

in its fruitage. Perplexity, doubt, unbelief and 
despair are the baleful fruits of such anti-scripture 
fanaticism. 

The great and momentous question for each one 
is not when or how were you converted, but are 
you now in a converted state? Do you now mourn 
over, hate, endeavor to be rid of and confess your 
sins? Do you now constantly turn to, cling to 
and rest on Christ as your only help and hope? 
Do you "die daily ," and are you "renewed day by 
day?" 

On these questions, dear reader, does your and 
my eternal salvation depend. 



SERMON II. 



THE CONVERSION OF THE WOMAN OF 
SAMARIA. 

John iv. 28, 29. 



John iv. 28, 2g. The woman then left her water-pot, and 
went her way into the city, and saith to the men : Come see a 
man which told me all things that ever I did : Is not this the 
Christ? 



SERMON II. 

Using these words merely as a standing point 
from which to look back over that whole interest- 
ing meeting and conversation between Christ and 
the woman of Samaria, we enter at once on the 
subject of her conversion. 

We inquire first, who was this woman? 

As to nationality, she was a Samaritan. As such 
she was a member of a despised and disreputable 
people. 

From the seventeenth chapter of second Kings . 
we learn that after the king of Assyria had carried 
captive the ten tribes, he re-peopled or colonized 
their land with colonies of heathen from different 
parts of his kingdom. These idolaters were soon, 
troubled by lions, which the Lord sent among them., 
as a punishment for their abominable rites. They 
attributed the visitation by the lions to their igno- 
rance of the manner of the God of the land. They 
petitioned their king to send back a priest of Israel, 
that he might teach them how to propitiate "the 
God of the land. ' ' One of the apostate priests of 
Israel, who had before mingled the worship of the 
3 (33) 



34 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

calves at Bethel with the worship of Jehovah, was 
sent. 

Naturally these heathen dwellers in Samaria 
would not learn a very pure worship of the true 
God. ' ' They feared the Lord, and served their 
own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they 
carried away from thence" 2 Kings xvii. 33. 
After the return of the Jews, when they began to 
rebuild the temple, these semi-idolatrous Samari- 
tans wanted to help to build, and thus acquire 
rights in the new sanctuary. Ezra and the Jews 
wisely refused to permit such union effort. From 
time to time these Samaritans received renegade 
Israelites and profligate priests among them, and 
intermarried with them. By and by they built 
their own temple on Mount Gerizim, where they 
established and maintained a mongrel worship of 
Israel's God. Their religion was never recognized 
by the Jews, who treated them as even worse than 
heathen. To this semi-barbarous and disreputable 
people did this woman belong. Nationally, not a 
very promising subject for Grace. 

But when we inquire into what she was person- 
ally, she becomes still less attractive. Her history 
■was a dark one : she had had five husbands. What 
became of all of them we do not know. Worse 



THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 35 

than that, she was now living with a man who was 
not her husband. She was the mistress of a para- 
mour ! Certainly she had fallen deeply into degra- 
dation and sin. There was not much left to appeal 
to. If a work of Grace is to be done in her heart, 
the seeds will have to be sown, the life implanted 
and the very foundations laid. If she is converted, 
it will not be the return of a once regenerate and 
now lapsed one, but the regeneration and conver- 
sion of one dead in trespasses and sins. Will Jesus, 
tired, thirsty, hungry and worn as He is, pay any 
attention to her? Will He try to open her eyes and 
turn (or convert) her from darkness to light and 
from the power of Satan to God? Yes, He will. 

We inquire, therefore, in the second place, how 
did Jesus treat her and deal with her? 

As He saw her approach, He did not stop to con- 
sider her race or her character. He saw in her a 
human being, with a soul capable of being renewed 
into the image of God. He did not stop to reason 
that it would not be worth while to endeavor to 
enlighten and convert this single individual, when 
He could at any time have the multitudes to crowd 
round Him to hear His word. Jesus had a care for 
the individual. He understood that the only way 
to reach the masses is to reach the single soul. A 



36 new Vestament conversions. ' 

lesson for all who have, or profess to have, the cure 
of souls. 

He preached the Word to her. It pleased Him 
in ivhom dwelt all the fulness of the God-head bodily, 
who claimed that His own words they are spirit 
and they are life, by the foolishness of preaching to 
save them that believe. In His own practice and in 
His instruction and commission to His Apostles, 
He always went on the principle that the Word 
carries the Spirit and power of God, and is, there- 
fore, the only instrument for the effectual conver- 
sion of the sinner. 

Much depends on the manner of using the Word. 
It may be presented in such a way as to repel. Had 
Jesus begun by at once railing at this woman's 
false religion and denouncing her character, we 
believe she would have left Him in bitterness of 
heart. It is interesting and profitable to notice 
His method of presenting and applying that Word. 
He first gains her attention, and at the same time 
secures her good will by asking a favor of her. 
Having thus opened the way and in a manner put 
himself under obligations, He skilfully leads her 
thoughts from the water of Jacob's well to the 
living water, which He could give. So artlessly 
and yet so forcibly does He speak of that living 



THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 37 

water as the gift of God, and of His own ability to 
give it, that He wakes in her heart a vague longing. 

He gives clearness and proper direction to that 
longing by showing her her sin. He instructs her 
that to get rid of this sin, it is not enough to out- 
wardly worship in the true Church ; but that she 
must believe Him and have the true spirit express- 
ing itself in a pure worship. Thus He calls out 
that clear, earnest, yearning for the help of the 
Messiah, which is called Christ. 

This yearning He now readily turns into a joyful 
faith by plainly revealing and declaring Himself 
as the Deliverer, the Christ whom she needs. 

What lessons of pastoral theology, of true soul 
cure, are here ! Oh, that all pastors and teachers 
might learn and practice them. 

We proceed to notice in the third place how this 
woman was affected. And this will bring to light 
the process of her conversion. 

We notice how, first of all, she became interested. 
She was willing to listen to and talk with this 
strange Teacher. This is of prime importance. 
We cannot expect to reach the careless sinner until 
we get him interested enough to gain his attention. 

After her first rather frivolous question, and the 
earnest, lofty answer of Jesus, she became more 



38 NRW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

serious. She addresses the stranger as Sir, i. e., 
Rabbi, Lord. She inquires about this living water, 
the manner of procuring it, and the manner of per- 
son who offers it. She may not have been much in 
earnest as yet, still it is a point gained when we can 
get sinners to inquire, to ask about spiritual things. 

The woman hears more about that living water 
and its wonderful powers to permanently satisfy. 
It makes her think of her own life, of its emptiness, 
its toil, and its weariness. She begins to experience 
an undefined and vague longing after something 
better. True, she does not yet understand what 
she needs. But she realizes that her life is unsatis- 
factory, that she needs something. She is thirsty. 

Unexpectedly, doubtless, but very clearly, she is 
made to look back over her life and down into her 
heart. She sees the darkness of the one and the 
vileness of the other. One word from Him who 
says, "Is not my word like a JireP'' had flashed in 
and shown her her shame and her sin. She felt, 
and winced as she felt it, that His word is indeed 
1 ' quick, " i. e., a thing of life, ' ' and powerful and 
sharper than any two-edged sword, pierci7ig even 
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of 
the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the hearty Heb. iv. 12. 



THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 39 

Why did she ask that next question about the 
proper place to worship? Was it to turn aside the 
light of the Word, to parry its blows, to draw off 
her own gaze and turn aside the gaze of Jesus? 
Did she simply want to change the subject? Did 
she desire to discuss an old theological question 
about the externals of worship rather than have 
any further reference to her own sin and need of 
salvation? So many interpreters have thought, 
and it may be that there was something of this 
spirit in her question. But we cannot believe that 
this was all that was in that question. We believe 
that we must find a deeper sense in it. Otherwise 
Jesus would not have treated it so seriously and so 
instructively. Neither would a flippant and evas- 
ive question fit into the course of the narrative. 

Her thirst had been intensified and properly di- 
rected. She realized her guiltiness, her need of 
forgiveness and change. She now had full confi- 
dence in the wisdom of Christ, she recognized Him 
as a divine Prophet. She wanted a sanctuary, a 
place where she could be certain, beyond the per- 
adventure of a doubt, that God was present, and 
would attend to the worshippers. She wanted to 
pray, to sacrifice, to seek forgiveness and peace. 

After the rather full and deep answer of Jesus, 



40 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

she plaintively expresses her heart's longing for 
' ' the Messias which is called Christ. ' ' Like the 
two disciples who afterwards walked with Him on 
the way to Emmaus, her heart burned within her as 
He talked with her, and she knew Him not. Her 
faith was not yet intelligent. But out of a peni- 
tent heart the tendrils of faith were reaching up 
and feeling after something to grasp and cling to. 
Faith was coining by hearing, and hearing by the 
Word of God. 

She was now ready to hear the full Gospel, 
which reveals the Messias which is called Christ. 
Jesus says to her, ' ' / that speak to thee am He. ' ' 

She at once recognizes and accepts Him as the 
Christ, her Saviour. And is not this true faith? 
Does any one doubt it ? If so, see how that faith at 
once proved itself. 

She immediately left her water-pot — she forgot, 
for a time, her temporal affairs. She had found 
better water than that in Jacob's well. 

Like the disciples, when they recognized the call 
of Jesus, they left their boats and fishing-nets. 
Like Matthew, who on a similar occasion left the 
receipt of customs, so this new disciple leaves her 
water-pot. 

She hurries into her city, where she is well 



THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 41 

known. She turns evangelist. She invites the 
men to ' ' come. ' ' She tells them of the Christ whom 
she has found. She makes known to them that He 
' ' told her all she ever did. ' ' Thereby she confesses 
her sin, and expresses her penitence. She assures 
them that this is the Christ. Thus she professes 
her faith, and thus her faith is beautifully bearing 
fruit. She is truly converted. Her conversion be- 
comes the occasion of many others. As in David's 
time, ' ' Then will I teach transgressors thy ways 
and sinners shall be converted unto thee." Jesus 
remains two days in that city, reaps a glorious 
harvest there. During these two days He no 
doubt further instructs the woman of Samaria, and 
her faith becomes more intelligent. 

A few closing reflections. This was the conver- 
sion of a bad woman. Let no one say that such or 
such a one is a hopeless case. Let no sinner say, 
■ ' My case is hopeless. ' ' He can and does, save to 
the uttermost, all that come unto God through Him. 

This conversion was brought about by the Word. 
So is every true conversion. Its elements were 
penitence and faith. These are the component 
elements of every conversion. 

Reader, are you converted? Have you in your 
heart true sorrow for and hatred of sin ? Do your 
3* 



42 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

sms trouble you? Do you die daily? Are you 
constantly turning to Him and resting in Him who 
is the Christ, the Saviour of the world ? Are you 
in an unconverted state? Can you and do you 
laugh at your sins? Are they as trifles to you? 
Would you be converted ? Come to the Word ! 
Hear it. Read it. Ponder it. It will bring about, 
if prayerfully used and not resisted, a vivid sense 
of your lost, ruined and guilty state. It will also 
beget a saving and appropriating faith in Christ. 
" Turn you, turn you; for why will you die?" 

Beside the well at noon-tide 

I hear a sad one say, 
" I want that living water, 

Give me to drink, I pray ; 

The well is deep, O Pilgrim, 

But deeper is my need ; 
I thirst for Life eternal 

The ' Gift of God' indeed." 

Ho every one that thirsteth, 

The living water buy ! 
Ye blessed ones that hunger, 

Take eat, and never die. 



SERMON III. 



THE CONVERSION OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 

Luke xv. 17-20. 



Luke xv. ij-20. And when he came to himself, he said, 
How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough 
and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to 
my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son : make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, 
and came to his father. 



SERMON III. 

Somebody lias said : " If I could have only one 
book of the Bible, and had my choice, I would 
select as that book the Gospel of St. Luke." 
When asked why he would select this book above 
all others, he said: "Because of the fifteenth 
chapter. ' ' 

We cannot find much fault with this choice. 
This is indeed a rich and precious chapter. Its 
three parables are radiant with the reflections of 
the glowing love of the Father's heart. 

If it were possible to narrow down the choice 
still more closely, and where all is so supremely 
excellent to select the most excellent, we would 
unhesitatingly select the parabolic story of the 
wandering, returning and welcomed prodigal. 
This parable has well been called "the Gospel in 
the Gospel" — the Gospel in a nutshell. 

The whole parable naturally divides itself into 
two parts: First, the part that delineates the 
younger son; and second, the part that portrays 
the elder son. 

The former part again naturally subdivides it- 

(45) 



46 NEW" TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

self into three parts. The first shows us the wilful 
departure from a loving parent and good home of 
the wayward youth. It pictures to us the wilful 
departure of the sinner from God. The second 
portrays the wanderer's return, portraying for us 
the sinner's conversion. The third part paints in 
vivid colors the reception of the returning one. 

We propose to consider more particularly the 
second point, viz: the prodigal's return, or con- 
version; for a turning round, or returning, is a 
conversion. Before entering upon the process of 
the conversion itself, we would further remark, 
that this conversion differs from some others re- 
corded in the New Testament. This is the return- 
ing of one who once enjoyed a good home, a father's 
love and care. He had a birth-right in that home, 
but renounced it and the father who gave it. The 
father, however, had not yet renounced him. 

In the case of the Samaritan woman, we had the 
conversion of one who, as far as we know, had 
never had a birth-right in a spiritual home. She 
had always been a stranger to the covenant and 
an alien from the household of faith. Hers was 
the regeneration and conversion of a sinner: this 
is rather the conversion or restoration of a once re- 
generate, but now lapsed one. That was the 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 47 

bringing to God for the first time of a sinner: 
this is the coining back of a wanderer who was 
once baptized into Christ, enjoyed some Christian 
nurture, and was, perhaps, confirmed in the church. 

We would further note, as preliminary to the ex- 
position that particular parables are intended to 
bring out and specially portray different phases or 
features of the same truth. Some, e. £■., that of 
the great supper, are intended to show more espec- 
ially the part that God works in the bringing back 
of the sinner. Others, as the one before us, are 
intended to emphasize the process in the sinner, 
and the manner of its manifestation. The divine 
side, the efforts and means of Grace, are, therefore, 
only incidentally shown. 

Turning now to the conversion of the prodigal, 
we divide the process into three steps. 

The first step was : He began to think. There- 
tofore he didn't want to think. If a reproachful 
thought, or a memory of the past, would occasion- 
ally flit through his mind, he made positive efforts 
to shake it off. It was, doubtless, partly to prevent 
or drown all sober, serious thought, that he 
plunged so heedlessly into dissipation. Thinking 
would disturb his wild enjoyment. It would 
make him uneasy. It would rob him of what he 



48 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

called his peace. And, therefore, he did not wish 
to think. 

Is it not always thus? Will any wilful, wayward 
wanderer sit down quietly and think of himself, his 
life, and his God? Dare he? No. On the con- 
trary, he will use every endeavor to prevent serious 
thought, or to banish it, when it comes unbidden. 

But God was training that prodigal. He desired 
to make him think. He permitted him, or may 
we not say He led him, to taste the bitter fruits of 
his own sin. 

He began to be in want. This was intended to 
make him pause and think. So God often dis- 
ciplines the sinner. He sends privations, losses, 
disappointments, diseases or death. These afflictive 
dispensations are not in themselves means of Grace. 
They do not carry saving virtue. But they are in- 
tended to prepare the careless for the reception of 
the means of Grace. They are designed to make 
the thoughtless think. 

He came to himself. He had been beside him- 
self. The inconsiderate and careless sinner is not 
in his right mind. When he has been made will- 
ing to consider, to think, to remember, then he 
comes to himself, and in coming to himself, he is 
beginning to come to his God. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 49 

Look at that prodigal ! He has come to want. 
He is herding swine. He is hungry. He craves 
the husks, the pods of the carob-tree, on which the 
swine are feeding. He begins to consider the sit- 
uation. He looks at himself. He is covered with 
rags and filth. He looks over his life. What a 
loving father gave, he has wasted in riotous living. 
He looks into his heart. He sees its vileness and 
its ungrateful meanness. His thoughts go back to 
what he once was. He recalls his home. That 
father-heart and father-love — those fatherly coun- 
sels and admonitions ! He remembers it all. He 
thinks it all over. 

Here we incidentally see that it is the work of 
the Word. And it is thus the sinner is brought 
to himself. He remembers that he was baptized 
into Christ, and set apart for the kingdom of God. 
He recalls the holy lessons he once learned and 
loved. He recollects the prayers, the counsels and 
admonitions of years gone by. He contrasts with 
all that his present life, his heart, his whole self. 
He is coming to himself. He is beginning to 
think. An important point is gained. He has 
taken the first step in his conversion. 

We do not know how long the prodigal had been 
thinking, or how long he had fought against sober, 



50 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

serious thought. It m^y have been many days 
since he began. It may have been very reluctant 
and timid thinking at first. It may have been 
weeks and months since the first serious and un- 
welcome thought had crossed his mind. Little by 
little, in quietness and alone, he pondered, till at 
last he fully came to himself. The first step was 
taken. 

The second step in his conversion was that he 
began to feel. 

We hear him talking to himself. He speaks of 
his own unworthiness. With him these are not 
mere words. In public, men often make confes- 
sions and acknowledgments for effect. They are 
mere words. Not so with him who is alone, who 
is musing out of a full heart, whose heart is so 
full that his lips speak almost unconsciously. He 
can say: While I mused the fire burned. 

The prodigal felt his unworthiness, his ungrate- 
fulness, his meanness. He loathed himself. He 
felt he was vile. He also felt the load and burden 
of guilt. / have sinned, sinned against heaven, 
am guilty in God's sight; I deserve punishment, 
am no more worthy to be called a son, forfeited my 
sonship, sold my birthright, deserve to be cast 
out, disinherited, disowned. These, we believe, 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 5 1 

were the feelings of his heart. It was a true 
mourning over sin. It was godly sorrow, working 
that repentance that needeth not to be repented of. 
He was a penitent, and penitence is the first part 
of conversion. It manifested itself in his case in 
first thinking of the father, his love and his coun- 
sels. He then thought of himself, his heart and 
his life. He contrasted self with the father and the 
father's word. He saw his sin. His thinking 
made him feel. It awoke a consciousness of un- 
worthiness and self-abhorrence. It made him feel 
his guilt and the deservedness of punishment. 
This is God's way of dealing with the sinner. He 
makes him think, thinking leads to feeling, the 
heart is reached through the head, the judgment 
is informed, and through it the conscience stirred 
and the heart moved. When Paul was sent to con- 
vert the Gentiles, he was commissioned "to open 
their eyes and to turn — i. e. to convert — them from 
darkness to light.'''' The first thing then was to 
open their eyes, i. e. to enlighten or instruct them; 
and this is the only true way. Instruction must 
come first. There must be knowledge, something 
to think about; then the feeling will come of its 
own accord. Those who would begin with the 
feelings, who aim to arouse and excite the sinner 



52 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

whom they desire to convert, are beginning at the 
wrong end. They are proceeding in a method that 
is contrary to the laws of the mind, as well as con- 
trary to the Word of God. Rational feeling is the 
product of rational thinking. 

We go on to notice the third and final step in the 
prodigal's conversion. He began to turn. 

In all his wanderings he had been turned away 
from his father and away from his real self. He 
was unwilling to turn even his thoughts back to his 
father or in on himself. But now he was turning. 
His thoughts were looking homeward and inward. 
His feelings also, so deep within him, were begin- 
ning to reach out toward his home. His heart 
was yearning for that father's pardon and love. 

As he thought and longed, he remembered his 
father's goodness. He became convinced that the 
father was merciful. His heart reached out tow- 
ards that mercy; it grasped it and was ready to 
throw itself upon it. He had no self-justification. 
He pleaded no excuse or extenuation. He didn't 
say he would go back and say he couldn't help it, 
it was the fault of others who led him astray. No, 
no; he frames no plea for self, he trusts only in the 
father's mercy, he wants only pardon. He rises, 
he turns, he hastens to receive that pardon. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 53 

And what is this turning towards the mercy of 
the father? What is it but faith f Yes, it is the 
outgrowth of penitence, and that is always faith; 
and penitence and faith together are conversion. 
The prodigal has turned to his father. His turn- 
ing is believing. Where there is believing there 
is conversion. 

Iyook at it. 

It began in pondering the blessings and counsels 
of his home days. The Word of our heavenly 
Father, even when silently pondered, is a means 
of Grace, a bearer of the Spirit. 

His thinking wrought feelings of unworthiness; 
a sense of guilt; a hatred of his sin, and a longing 
for deliverance. 

This turned his thought and heart to his father; 
it made him lay hold of the remembered mercy; 
it made him arise and go. It brought him to his 
father. 

The thoughts and feelings of his heart were al- 
already framed in words for his lips. He confesses: 
true faith always confesses. With tlie heart man 
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth 
confession is made unto salvation. 

Look at the reception of the returning one. Will 
the father receive him? He comes in rags and 



54 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

filth. He carries the handwriting of sin on his 
countenance. The mark of Cain is there. He 
looks degraded and vile. Will not the father shut 
the door in his face? Will he not tell him, "You 
made your bed, now lie in it?" Will he do like 
many an earthly father has done? Look and see. 
The old father has been waiting and watching. 
When he is yet a great way off, the father sees him ; 
he runs to meet him; he falls on his neck; he kisses 
him; he calls him u my son!" 

Oh yes, the son had tried to forget the father, 
but the father had not for a moment forgotten or 
disowned the son. The baptized one may forget, 
he may repudiate his side of the covenant, but God 
never forgets or breaks His side. He is ever ready 
to welcome back the penitent one; to give him the 
kiss of forgiveness ; to own him as ' ' my son, " " my 
daughter. ' ' 

Notice how eagerly the two come together. On 
the part of the son, there is no struggling, no 
wrestling, no pleading, no penitential season of 
waiting, and working, and getting through. On 
the part of the father, no holding back, no barring 
of the door, no refusing to hear or to heed, no re- 
luctant opening at last, because the son is about 
ready to frantically break in. Surely no modern 
revivalist drew that picture! 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 55 

Dear reader: Are you a wanderer? Are you 
now away from the Father-home and Father- 
heart? Are you sojourning in that far country, 
that wild, waste land, where God is not? Is there 
sometimes a thought of former and better days — a 
pang of home-sickness? Do you sometimes realize 
that you are in want? Do you perhaps recall the 
prayers once, in the dim and distant past, lisped at 
a mother's knee? Do there come at times echoes 
of the stories and sayings of Jesus, which then fell 
into eager ears and a receptive heart? Do there 
flit occasionally across memory's canvas, unsought 
images of childhood's Lord's Days, of the walk to 
the Sunday-school, of the teacher, the lessons, the 
hymns and prayers? Do you see again the sainted 
pastor, and hear again those words that then were 
sacred with a heavenly sound? Has the church- 
bell ever startled you? Does the sight of others 
going joyfully to the sanctuary of God make you 
restless ? Oh, do not shake off these serious im- 
pressions. Cherish them ! Take down the old 
Bible and catechism : begin to think ; think till 
you feel ; feel till you loathe yourself, and long for 
deliverance. L,ook then to mercy as it shines from 
the cross. Turn to the Crucified; there the Father 
will meet you. He is waiting. He is coming to 



56 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

meet you. He is standing before you. Accept 
Him. Receive His advances. Call Him Father. 
He calls you son. He kisses you with the kiss of 
pardon and adoption. 

Come home ! Come home ! 
You are weary at heart, 
For the way has been dark, 
And so lonely and wild. 
O Prodigal Child, come home ! 

Come home ! Come home ! 
From the sorrow and blame, 
From the sin and the shame 
And the tempter that smiled. 
O Prodigal Child, come home ! 

Come home ! Come home ! 
There is bread and to spare, 
And a warm welcome there. 
Then, to friends reconciled, 
O Prodigal Child, come home ! 



SERMON IV. 



THE CONVERSION OF THE PUBLICAN. 

Luke; xviii. 13. 



Luke xviii. /j. And the publican standing afar off, would 
not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven ; but smote upon 
his breast, saying, God be merciful unto me a sinner. 



SERMON IV. 

We have before us a character sketch, drawn by 
a master hand. With a few words, two represen- 
tative persons, quite opposite in heart and life, are 
made to stand before us in life-like colors. It is a 
double picture, drawn by Him who could portray 
the inner and outer man as none else can, because 
He knew what was in man, and needed not that any 
one should tell Him. 

It is no wonder that those writers who have best 
succeeded in delineating human nature — as e. g. 
Shakespeare — have been close students of the 
Bible. No other book uncovers and lays bare the 
secret springs of the human heart like this book. 
No other master can portray the hidden impulses 
and motives of humanity like He who made man. 
For the same reason none else could so truthfully 
and vividly show the out-workings and manifesta- 
tions of the spirit within. 

He in whom dwelt all the fulness of the God-head 
bodily, has with a few master strokes, drawn for us 
the pictures of the Pharisee and the Publican. 
These pictures are set before us for our instruction 

(59) 



60 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

and profit. We are to contemplate them. We are 
to be warned by the one: we are to be instructed 
and drawn to imitation by the other. 

We desire for the present to look more particu- 
larly at the second picture, and consider the conver- 
sion of the publiccm. 

We will consider first one of the greatest hinder- 
ances to conversion — we mean self-righteousness. 
We see this delineated and manifested in the 
Pharisee. We, therefore, study him as contrasted 
with the Publican. The Pharisee is self-righteous- 
ness personified. We see it standing before us. 
We see how it lives and moves and exalts itself 
toward heaven. We see what it is and whence it 
springs. 

It is a complacent satisfaction with self. It is 
an unctuous self-flattery. It is a magnifying of 
one's supposed virtues. It is a wilful blindness to 
one's own faults. It is greatest in negative virtues. 
Its passive virtues are trifles magnified. Look at 
and listen to that Pharisee. He goes up to the 
temple, he considers himself a religious man, he 
professes to pray ; but what a prayer! There is no 
word of confession, except a confession of other 
people's sins. There is no breath of petition. He 
stands forth boldly and prominently. He begins 



THE PUBLICAN. 6l 

with thanksgiving, but he does not thank for mercy, 
for Grace, for blessings received; he is so full of self 
and self-sufficiency, that he can only thank for 
what he is and what he does, in contrast with 
others. He delights to compare himself with the 
common herd. He first tells the Lord what he 
does not do. He is not an extortioner. He is in 
no sense unjust. He is too pure to ever be capable 
of committing adultery. He can best sum up his 
goodness by thanking the Lord he is not like this 
Publican. Such is self-righteousness, a fearful 
disease of fallen humanity, one of the greatest 
hinderances to its restoration. 

It is well that we understand this disease. There 
are few places in the Word of God that so clearly 
describe it, as does this parable. It will be profit- 
able for us to look into it a little more deeply. 

What are the roots of self-righteousness ? There 
are two main roots. One is a shallow view of God 
and His law. The other is a superficial under- 
standing of sin and self. 

This was the trouble with this Pharisee, and 
indeed with all the Pharisees of Christ's day. He 
did not realize the august, sublime and holy nature 
of the Being whom he so bluntly and boldly ad- 
dressed. Had he had even a faint conception of 



62 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Him whose eyes are like flames of fire, too pure to 
behold iniquity or look upon sin with allowance — had 
he understood even remotely, how the very nature of 
God shrinks from and abhors sin, that He is so in- 
expressibly pure that He charges His angels with 
folly, and that the very heavens are unclean in His 
sight — had he even approximately known that the 
whole past history of Israel, the whole service of 
that temple in which he stood, was intended to 
teach God's holiness — had he, in short, under- 
stood the nature of God, he could not have done as 
he did. 

Because he did not understand God's nature, 
therefore, he did not at all know God's law. In 
boasting of his own good deeds, which he doubtless 
regarded as a fulfilling of the law, there is not a 
word of fearing, loving or trusting in God. In- 
deed, the whole first table is deliberately passed 
over. He flatters himself that he has kept the law 
because he has abstained from the gross acts of 
extortion, adultery and injustice. He mentions 
two positive virtues. He boasts of these as marks 
of supererogation, as doing even more than the 
law demanded. Had he heard and understood the 
Sermon on the Mount, he could not have imagined 
that he kept the law. 



THE PUBLICAN. 63 

Because he did not understand the spirit of the 
law, therefore, he did not know what sin is. To 
him sin consisted in the outward acts of the hand, 
the tongue, the stomach, or other bodily organs. 
He did not realize that sin is really a matter of the 
heart and spirit. He had not learned that lust or 
desire is sin. Had he known what sin is, in its 
essence and nature, he would not have dared to so 
stand before God. Knowing not what sin is, he 
had no conception of the sinfulness and desperate 
wickedness of his own heart. He did not know 
himself. Thus his ignorance of God and His law, 
and his ignorance of self and sin, made him self- 
righteous. 

Self-righteousness was the greatest obstacle our 
Saviour had to contend with. It was characteristic 
of the Scribes and Pharisees. He could reach and 
gather in Publicans, and sinners, but He reached 
very few Pharisees. To them He said : ' ' The Pub- 
licans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before 
you. ' ' 

Self-righteousness is the great obstacle to the 
Church's progress to-day. Our age is sadly afflicted 
with this malady. It has crept into many popular 
churches. The holiness of God and the sinfulness 
of sin are too little understood and realized. Con- 



64 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

sequently Christ is too little appreciated. Repent- 
ance and faith are not preached as they should be. 
Superficial expedients are tried to gather in sinners. 
Self-righteousness is not exposed and dislodged. 
True conversions are comparatively rare. 

The Church can stoop- down and pick up the 
fallen out of the filth and mire of sin, when such 
are brought to realize their sin. But the Church 
cannot reach, Christ cannot save men, as long as 
they trust in themselves that they are righteous, and 
despise others. 

The only remedy for this dire malady is the 
Word of God. That sword of the Spirit must cut 
in and lay bare the corruption and soreness of the 
deceitful and desperately wicked heart. It must 
pierce even to the dividing asunder of the joints 
and marrow, and discern the thoughts and intents 
of the heart. ' k By the law is the knowledge of sin. ' ' 
Through the Word the Holy Spirit convinces the 
world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. 

This living Word, carrying the Spirit's life, had 
certainly done its preparatory work in the heart of 
the Publican, to whom we now turn. 

We believe that we see in him a product of the 
power of the Word. It had prepared his heart: 
although our parable does not definitely mention 



THE PUBLICAN. 65 

this, we reason from the effect to the cause. It 
was now converting that heart. We see in that 
heart the workings first of penitence and then of 
faith. Notice the penitence as manifested first in 
his actions. 

He stood afar off. He felt himself unfit to ap- 
proach too near the Holy place — like some outcast, 
coming into a church and standing by the door, as 
if too base to enter farther into the house of God. 

How opposite to the Pharisee, who stood forth 
conspicuously, doubtless as near the Holiest place 
as possible! 

He would not so much as lift his eyes unto heaven. 
Unworthy and ashamed to look up, he casts his 
eyes upon the ground. Ashamed because of his 
sin, bowed down with a sense of guilt, his very at- 
titude is a confession of sin and sorrow therefor. 

Blessed shame! It is a hopeful symptom. The 
blush of shame because of sin, has well been 
called the morning dawn of a new life. Ezra said: 
"/ am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face unto 
Thee." Job said: "/ am vile." Jeremiah com- 
plained of the impenitent Jews: " They were not at 
all ashamed, neither could they blush.''' 1 And 
again: <( Thou hadst a whore'' s forehead, thou re- 
fusedst to be ashamed. ' ' 



66 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

The Publican smote upon his breast. As if to in- 
dicate, "here is the sore spot, here is the impure 
heart, here is the seat of sin." To him sin did not 
consist in a few outward acts. To him it was, first 
of all, a diseased and denied condition of his very 
being. It was not so much the sins of the hand or 
tongue that worried him, but the sinful heart from 
which those sprung. He smote upon his breast. 

By this he further indicated that he deserved 
smiting. As a transgressor, he felt guilty. As 
guilty, he felt worthy of stripes. As justly subject 
to punishment, he smote upon his breast. His 
actions betokened penitence. 

So did his words. He designates himself "a 
sinner." More literally translated, the sinner, or 
the sinful one. As though he had been a sinner 
above all others. As though he had been the only 
one. Here was a strong confession of individual 
and personal guilt. It was more than a general 
confession of general sinfulness. It was self-con- 
demnation. It expressed in words what had been 
shown in acts. 

This singling of himself out as the chief of sin- 
ners is the very essence of a thorough repentance. 
When the sinner sees himself as standing apart 
from a sinful race, as justly condemned for personal 



THE PUBLICAN. 67 

guilt, then has he been enlightened from on high, 
convinced of sin by the Spirit of God. 

It is this sense of personal guilt and condemna- 
tion to which all must come. There is no true 
conversion without it. A general confession is 
easily made. It is not so hard to believe that all 
are sinners. But it is quite another matter to real- 
ize and feel, "/am a sinner," "I am the sinner," 
' ' I am the chief of sinners, " " Sin in the abstract 
has become concrete in me." Such was the Publi- 
can's confession. He was truly penitent. 

But his penitence grew into faith. True peni- 
tence is the root of faith, and true faith is the fruit 
of penitence. 

We see his faith in his plea for mercy. Like the 
penitent prodigal, when he thinks of his father, he 
remembers and ponders the one trait of mercy — so 
this Publican. His eye is cast down, but his 
bowed heart cries upward. He calls to mind that 
God is merciful. His heart yearns for mercy. 
While his mind thinks of mercy, his heart reaches 
out for it. 

Mercy is something unmerited. It cannot in- 
deed be earned. What is earned or paid for cannot 
be mercy. It cannot be bought. It can only be 
received as a free gift. Faith is a turning towards 



68 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

and laying hold of mercy. Self-righteousness asks 
for rights. It demands wages. It wants justice. 

Faith claims nothing as a right. It asks not for 
wages. It seeks not justice. Faith knows that to 
ask for justice is to ask for rejection, to claim 
wages earned is to claim condemnation. 

In the days of Napoleon the Great, a timid little 
girl once pressed her way through the courtiers 
and stood before him. Looking down into her 
pleading face, the emperor said, "Well, child, 
what is it?" Tremblingly she told him that she 
came to beg for the life of her father, who was 
under sentence of death. Growing stern, the em- 
peror replied, "Child, your petition is useless: 
twice before your father deserved death, and was 
pardoned, and now justice! justice to my country, 
and justice to myself, demands that he suffer the 
penalty." "Sir," said the little pleader, "I come 
not to ask for justice, but to beg for mercy. ' ' 

And so the Publican came. And so must every 
penitent come. And so does true faith ever come. 
It sees the proffered mercy. It realizes that it is 
unmerited and free. It reaches out towards that 
mercy. It grasps it, it clings to it, it casts itself 
upon it, it rests there. This is faith. The Publi- 
can is converted. 



THE PUBLICAN. 69 

Sinner, there is mercy for you. You cannot 
earn it. It has been earned, by the obedient life, 
the atoning death and triumphant resurrection and 
ascension of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
You cannot buy it. It has been bought and paid 
for by Him. You cannot prepare yourself for it. 
You need only let Him prepare you, by coming to 
that living Word, which will convict you of your 
guilt, your need, your own helplessness, and the 
abounding help of free mercy. It will enable you 
to lay hold of and rejoice in that mercy. 

The Publican went down to his house justified. 
He was justified, not because he had made himself 
worthy, but because he believed. "A man is not 
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith 
of Jesus Christ . . . for by the works of the law 
shall no flesh be justified. Bei?ig justified by faith, 
he had peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ^ 

It was a blessed church-going to jhim. Every 
church-going ought to be attended with the same 
blessed results. Oh, for a congregation of wor- 
shippers with hearts bowed down with a sense of 
sin, emptied of self-sufficiency, yearning for richer 
measures of Grace, and believing that Jesus does 
furnish that satisfying Grace. 



JO NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

One of our old German ministers was once con- 
gratulated by a Presbyterian pastor on bis large 
audiences and general popularity. "Oh, no," said 
the old Lutheran, "I have nothing yet to be con- 
gratulated on. My people don't realize yet that 
without Christ they are all poor, lost and ruined 
sinners." May our church-going be always so 
blessed to us, that each attendance may deepen 
our penitence and increase our faith. 

All that I was, my sin, my guilt, 

My death, was all my own. 
All that I am I owe to Thee, 

My gracious God, alone. 

The evil of my former state 

Was mine, and only mine, 
The good in which I now rejoice 

Is Thine and only Thine. 

Thy Grace first made me feel my sin, 

It taught me to believe, 
Then, in believing, peace I found, 

And now I live, I live ! 



SERMON V. 



THE CONVERSION OF ZACCHEUS. 

Luke xix. 2-9. 



LukesS^L. 2-9. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. 
And, behold, there was a man named Zaccheus, which was the 
chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to 
see Jesus who He was ; and could not for the press, because he 
was little of stature. And he ran before and climbed into a 
sycamore tree to see Him ; for He was to pass that way. And 
when Jesus came to the place, He looked up, and saw him, and 
said unto him, Zaccheus, make haste and come down ; for to- 
day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came 
down, and received Him joyfully. And when they saw it, they 
all murmured, saying, That He was gone to be guest with a 
man that is a sinner. And Zaccheus stood, and said unto the 
Lord : Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ; 
and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, 
I restore him four-fold. And Jesus said unto him : This day is 
salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of 
Abraham. 



SERMON V. 

Zaccheus was a publican. The publicans were 
the tax collectors among the Jews of our Saviour's 
day. The tax, or tribute as they called it, was 
levied by Rome. Though conquered by Rome 
and under its rule, the Jews fretted under the yoke 
and yielded only a sullen and unwilling obedience 
to its authority. They hated to pay tribute to 
Caesar, and consequently hated those who collected 
the tax. And so every one hated the sight of a 
publican. 

The Roman government took contracts for the 
taxes. For example, some rich man would become 
responsible for the taxes of a certain district or 
county. He would sub-let that district to a num- 
ber of others, each one of whom became responsi- 
ble to him for a certain section, as e. g. a town- 
ship. The sub-contractor again would generally 
hire men to go from house to house and gather in 
the money. Thus it came about that the tax 
money had to pass through three or four hands 
before it reached the treasury of Rome. Each one 
of these hands wanted a profit. In order to make 
(73) 



74 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

a profit more tax was collected than was levied by 
Rome. And so it became almost a part of the sys- 
tem to extort unlawful money. The people knew 
this, and therefore hated these unjust and oppres- 
sive publicans still more. To be a publican was, 
in the eyes of the people, to be an extortioner. 
Those who had the contracts for larger districts, 
were chief among the publicans. Such was 
Zaccheus. 

The city of Jericho was probably the most im- 
portant commercial city in Palestine. Lying just 
opposite the fords of the river Jordan, it was on the 
great highway that led from Arabia and Assyria 
across into Egypt. This City of Palm Trees was 
naturally a headquarters for those who were chief 
of the publicans. Zaccheus lived there. 

Our text gives us an account of the remarkable 
conversion of this chief publican. It is this con- 
version that we now desire to consider. 

We inquire, first : WJiat led to that conversion ? 
There are some who tell us that it was the curiosity 
of Zaccheus that led to his conversion. They say 
that he had heard about Jesus, and therefore had 
that curious desire to see Him that we all have to 
look upon some eminent or famous person. And 
this idle curiosity alone, they tell us, made him so 
eager to see Jesus. 



THE CONVERSION OF ZACCHEUS. 75 

We confess that this strikes us as a rather super- 
ficial view of the matter. To us the eagerness of 
Zaccheus seems too great to be accounted for on 
the mere ground of curiosity. There seems to be 
a deep and intense earnestness underlying his 
rather strange actions. The sequel of the story 
also seems to squarely contradict the idea of a mere 
curiosity. 

We believe there were deeper motives there. 
We believe that prevenient Grace was at work 
there. 

Jesus was closing up His public ministry. He 
was on His last journey to Jerusalem. For three 
years He had been going up and down in the land 
with blessings in His heart, with blessings on His 
lips, and with blessings in His hands. He had 
been the great Helper and Healer of the bodies and 
souls of men. 

His fame had gone abroad into all the land. 
Everywhere people were talking about Him. He 
had been in the region of Jericho at different times 
before. Zaccheus must have heard about Him. 
The tax-collectors under him, who were going 
from house to house, among the people, would 
naturally come in contact with some who had seen 
and heard Jesus, who had been helped, or had seen 



y6 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

others helped. Quite likely some of these under- 
publicans had themselves seen some of those 
wonderful deeds of love, and heard some of those 
wonderful words of life. All this they would re- 
port to Zaccheus when they came to pay over their 
money. They would also be very likely to tell 
him that this wonderful Jesus did not think Him- 
self above speaking to, mingling with, and helping 
men of their own despised class — that He had 
even called one, who had been a chief among the 
publicans, from the receipt of custom, to become 
one of His twelve disciples. 

Zaccheus heard these stories about Jesus. This 
was Gospel to him, for what is the Gospel but the 
glad tidings, the good news of the Son of God ? 
Zaccheus had this Gospel only in disconnected 
stories and rumors. It was only a fragmentary 
Gospel, but it was all the Gospel he had. And 
even this Gospel was to him the power of God unto 
salvation. 

He had accepted that Gospel. He had believed 
those stories. They had stirred in him longings 
after a better life. They had worked an earnest 
desire to come near to this Jesus and receive a 
blessing from Him. His heart was going out to- 
wards this unknown Jesus. 



THE CONVERSION OF ZACCHEUS. JJ 

Here let us notice, in passing, that Zaccheus 
might have resisted, and shaken off these impres- 
sions; he might have plunged more deeply into 
business and speculation; he might have quenclied 
the Spirit, who was working through the Word — 
but he did not. He allowed that fragmentary 
Word to do its blessed preparatory work. This 
led to his conversion. 

We notice, secondly, the obstacles in the way of 
his conversion. 

First: He was rich. Riches have ever proved a 
formidable obstacle to the conversion of sinners. 
God demands the whole heart or none. He will 
not have a divided heart. We cannot serve God 
and Mammon. Riches take a strong hold on the 
human heart. Covetousness grows as wealth in- 
creases. ' ' Take heed, and beware of covetousness, ' ' 
' ' which is idolatry. ' ' 

In the chapter preceding our text we have a 
sad example of the adverse power of riches. In 
view of that example Jesus said: How hardly shall 
they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 
It is easier for a camel to go through a needle 1 's eye, 
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
God. Further on He explains that while with man 
it is impossible, with God it is possible. It seems 



;S NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

to require a special measure of Grace from God, and 
special earnestness on the part of himself, for a rich 
man to become and remain a child of God. Zaccheus 
was rich. Here was an obstacle to his conversion. 

Again, there was a bodily impediment, he was 
small of stature — so small that he could not see 
Jesus for the crowd that surrounded Him. This 
physical disability might have kept him away from 
Jesus. He might have said, " I want to see Jesus, 
I had fully intended to see Him; but my smallness 
of stature prevents me, and so I'll give it up." 

A further difficulty in the way was the ridicule 
to which he would expose himself by taking a 
position where he could see. As a publican he 
was despised by the people. He knew that they 
would be only too ready to ridicule him if he 
should climb into that tree. Again, he had a cer- 
tain dignity to maintain. He was a rich man, a 
chief among the publicans, an officer of the Roman 
government; and should he so compromise his 
dignity as to make a public spectacle of himself? 
Should he run ahead of the crowd, and in full view 
of them, climb into a tree like a boy? Should he 
become a laughing-stock to his enemies and a 
mortification to his friends? Here were obstacles 
to overcome. 



THE CONVERSION OF ZACCHEUS. 79 

But Zaccheus was too much in earnest to be de- 
terred. Oh, how many have been kept away from 
Christ by just such impediments as were in his way. 
How many have had their first serious thoughts, 
their first good impulses, checked by the deceitfulness 
of riches. How many have been kept out of the 
kingdom of Grace here, and the kingdom of Glory 
there, by the glitter of gold. Not so Zaccheus, 
he was already beginning to esteem the reproach of 
Christ greater riches than the treasures of Rome. 

And how many again have been kept out by 
bodily impediments. Oh, how many are kept 
away, or rather keep themselves away, from the 
house of God and the means of Grace, by real or 
imaginary bodily ailments. Alas, these nervous 
spells! These Sunday headaches! This dread of 
exposure on the Lord's day! We have known 
many who could work hard all week, but were too 
weak or nervous or sick to go to church on Sunday ; 
because of slight or only supposed bodily ills, the 
poor soul was allowed to starve and die. 

On the other hand, we have known persons who 
really had serious bodily ailments, who yet had 
themselves led or carried into the house of God. 
We have seen persons sit under the preaching of 
the Word, while their bodies were shaking with 



80 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

pain. These were in earnest. They were hungry. 
They wanted to meet Jesus in His Church and in 
His ordinances. Such was Zaccheus. Too little 
to see Jesus like other people, he quickly devised a 
way and found a place where he could. 

How many also have been kept from yielding to 
the strivings of the Spirit in the preaching of the 
Word, because they were afraid of ridicule. Alas 
for the number that have been laughed and sneered 
out of heaven. Zaccheus did not stop for this, but 
boldly braved the bravado of the crowd. Thus he 
overcame every obstacle that stood in the way of 
his conversion. 

In the third place we notice the conversion itself. 

We have already noticed the preparatory work 
that had been done by the fragmentary Gospel he 
had doubtless received. Through this the prepar- 
atory Grace had reached him, and drawn him to- 
wards Jesus. This had brought him to where the 
Word and look of Jesus could reach him. And 
Jesus did reach him. He looked up and saw. him. 
As an old writer says, "He saw in Zaccheus a ripe 
fig, ready to drop into His lap." It was there, in 
that tree, where the turning point was made. 
There the decisive step was taken, and Zaccheus 
was converted. 



THE CONVERSION OF ZACCHEUS. 8 1 

When Jesus spoke to him, called him by name, 
and bade him to come down, it was the same voice, 
the same living Word that had spoken power into 
a withered hand, and life into dead bodies. 

Zaccheus heard that Word. He yielded fully to 
its power, and in yielding he turned from darkness 
to light, and from the power of Satan to God. 
When Zaccheus made haste and came down, he 
was a converted man. 

How far the beginnings, that led to that final 
step, lay back, we do not know. Doubtless the 
beginnings were small. A passing thought about 
Jesus, a timid look into his own heart, a hasty 
glance over his past life, a slight dissatisfaction 
with self, an unexpressed longing after some- 
thing better — such may have been the beginnings. 
It was the seed-corn, rooting and sprouting. With 
clearer ideas of sin and the Saviour, with deeper 
sorrow for sin and more earnest longing to come 
to this Saviour, the change was becoming more 
decisive. And now the crisis had come, and he 
surrendered fully to Christ The great rending 
choice was made. 

Let no one despise the day of small things. 
Where small measures and opportunities of Grace 
5 



82 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

are improved, greater ones are given. Let it also 
be still borne in mind, that even now Zaccheus 
might have refused to come down and receive 
Jesus into his house. He might have resisted 
even this effectual call. Man always has the sad 
and awful prerogative and power to beat back the 
hand that is stretched out to save him. 

In conclusion, we notice the evidences that 
Zaccheus was truly converted. A true conversion 
always proves itself. So did this one. Zaccheus 
made a public confession. This must follow every 
conversion. " With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made 
unto salvation." Zaccheus confessed his former 
sins. He did this in the presence of the people, 
and before Christ. 

He said, " If I have taken anything from any 
man by false accusation." This is at least an ac- 
knowledgment that he had not been careful to be 
honest, that he had been capable of taking by false 
accusation. Thus he confessed his sinfulness and 
his sin. 

He confessed Christ by coming down from the 
tree at His call, going with Him in presence of the 
murmuring crowd, and making this public declar- 
ation to Him as his Lord. 



THE CONVERSION OF ZACCHEUS. 83 

He further proved his conversion by his determi- 
nation to make restitution for any wrong done. 
A truly converted man cannot keep what he knows 
is ill-gotten gain. His enlightened and now ten- 
der conscience, compels him to make restoration as 
far as possible. 

In purposing to make restitution, Zaccheus, at 
the same time, professed that henceforth he would 
be strictly honest in all his dealings. There can 
be honesty where there is no religion, but there 
certainly can be no true religion where there is no 
honesty. A true Christian cannot misrepresent, 
adulterate, give short weight, or measure or take 
advantage of ignorance, in his business transactions. 
A man may pray ever so fervently in prayer-meet- 
ing, or talk ever so touchingly in experience meet- 
ing, but if he is not strictly truthful and honest in 
all his dealings, we take no stock in his religion. 
A true conversion turns a dishonest into an honest 
man. 

Again, Zaccheus became liberal. Half of his 
goods he determined to give to the poor. A true 
conversion turns the stingy into the liberal man. 
It opens the pocket-book as well as the heart. 
There is no such thing as a Christian miser. If 
one is a miser he is not a Christian, he needs to be 
converted. 



84 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Finally, salvation came to the house of Zaccheus. 
not that all the members of the household were at 
once converted, but the head of the family had 
become a disciple of Christ. This brought a 
Christian atmosphere into the home. The Word 
of God and prayer took their proper place in the 
family. The things of God were talked about and 
taught in the household. A true conversion shows 
piety at home. We once heard a boy say with 
considerable bitterness: "Yes, my father can pray 
at prayer-meeting, but I never heard him pray at 
home." He professed to be a Christian, but sal- 
vation had not been brought by him into the 
house. 

Behold then, in Zaccheus, the proofs of conver- 
sion. Do you profess to be in a converted state? 
Can you show the evidence that he showed? 

Are you still unconverted ; in the gall of bitter- 
ness and the bond of iniquity? Would you be 
converted? What must you do? Simply use the 
means. Use them diligently and prayerfully, and 
they will bring renewing Grace into your soul. 



SERMON VI. 



THE FALL AND RECONVERSION OF PETER. 

Matt. xxvi. 69-75. 



Matt. xxvi. <5p-7j. Now Peter sat without in the palace : and 
a damsel came unto him, saying : Thou also wast with Jesus of 
Galilee. 

But he denied before them all, saying : I know uot what thou 
sayest. 

And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw 
him, and said unto them that were there : This fellow was also 
with Jesus of Nazareth. 

And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. 

And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and 
said to Peter : Surely thou also art one of them ; for thy speech 
bewrayeth thee. 

Then began he to curse and to swear, saying : I know not the 
man. And immediately the cock crew. 

And Peter remembered the word of Jesus. Before the cock 
crow thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept 
bitterly. 



SERMON VI. 

Among all the interesting characters of the New 
Testament, there are none more interesting than 
the Apostle Peter. There is something about him 
that invites study. There is much in him that is 
fascinating. We often feel that we cannot help 
but love him. On the other hand, he often vexes 
us. His character requires careful and unpre- 
judiced examination. If we fail to understand the 
whole man, if we stop short of considering his 
whole career, we will be quite likely to form a one- 
sided judgment. There is danger of making him 
either a hero or a coward. Before we can under- 
stand his fall and recovery, we must understand 
the man. 

Peter, with his younger brother Andrew, was 
among the earliest of Christ's followers. He had 
been a disciple of John the Baptist, by whom he 
had been directed to Jesus. Jesus at once took 
particular notice of him and paid special attention 
to him. His name had been Simon; Jesus changed 
it to Cephas, which is the Syriac word for Petros, 
which is the Greek word for rock. " And when 
(87) 



88 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the sou 
ofjoua: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by in- 
terpretation, A stone." John i. 42. 

From among the large number of disciples, Jesus 
selected twelve to be apostles. It seems that Peter 
was the first chosen; his name is always mentioned 
first in the lists of the apostles. From the begin- 
ning he was a recognized leader. By common 
consent he acted as the spokesman for the rest. 
He was one of the favored three who stood closest 
to Jesus; they were permitted to witness miracles 
that none others saw; they were with Jesus on the 
mount of transfiguration; they with Andrew heard 
that long, deep and thrilling prophecy concerning 
the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the 
world. Jesus certainly recognized Peter as a true 
disciple; he was neither a formalist nor a hypocrite. 
Not only did he witness good lip-confessions, but 
Jesus said to him, Matt. xvi. 17, "Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed 
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." 

We notice some elements of strength in liis 
character. The first is the conviction of his own sin. 
On one occasion when he was suddenly confronted 
with the power and divinity of his Lord, he vehe- 
mently confessed, il fam a sinful man, O Lord." 



FALL AND RECONVERSION OF PETER. 89 

This we consider an element of strength. In the 
kingdom of Grace there is no strength without a 
sense of sin and unworthiness. He who most 
clearly and most fully realizes this has in him the 
foundation of the greatest strength. Paul, who 
could say " of 'whom — i. e. of sinners — I am chief' 1 '' 
could also say, ' ' when I am weak, then am I 
strong. ' ' 

Again we recognize his strength in his clear and 
unreserved confession of Christ, or his faith. When 
' ' many of His disciples went back and walked no 
more with Him, then said fesus unto the twelve, Will 
ye also go away ? Then Simon Peter answered and 
said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the 
words of eternal life." John vi. 66-68. And so 
again when Jesus asked, Matt. xvi. 15, 16: " But 
whom say ye that I am ? And Simon Peter an- 
swered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God.'''' 

We see a further element of strength in his deep 
love for his Iyord. When he recognized Jesus 
walking on the water, he at once desired to get 
near to Him. ''''Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to 
thee.'''' When Jesus announced that one of them 
should betray Him, Peter became very solicitious 
for his Master. When told that all should be of- 
5* 



90 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

fended because of Him, Peter violently protested, 
that for his part, he was ready to go to prison and 
to death with Jesus. Neither was there any in- 
tended hypocrisy in this. Peter spoke as he felt; 
he did love his Saviour; he did on the first approach 
of violence draw his sword and begin to fight for 
Him. There is no doubt but that even some of his 
blunders were in part the expressions of unreason- 
ing and impulsive love. So, on the mount, when 
he wist not what he said, and proposed to build three 
tabernacles because it was good to be there, there 
was in it a desire to remain near Jesus. So again 
when he rebuked his Lord for intimating His ap- 
proaching sufferings and death, there was doubt- 
less love in his hasty words; and so also when he 
protested against Jesus washing his feet. 

But there was also some self-love present. Peter 
had his weak side; it showed itself again and 
again. It culminated in his sad deep fall. 

Peter was too much guided by impulse; He was 
too much a man of feeling; he acted too much on 
the spur of the moment; he was too hasty; he was 
inconsiderate; he spoke without thinking; he was 
swift to speak and slow to hear; he was willing to 
build towers without counting the cost; ready to 
go on a warfare on his own charges. We see this 



FALL AND RECONVERSION OF PETER. 9 1 

in nearly all his actions; we hear it in most of his 
words. When he started so boldly to go to Jesus 
on the water, he soon began to look on the winds 
and waves, and began to sink. Instead of asking 
Jesus for instruction concerning His sufferings 
and death, he presumed to rebuke the Lord, and 
thus drew upon himself the severest rebuke that 
Jesus ever gave to a disciple. Before he under- 
stands or tries to understand the foot-washing, he 
breaks out, "Thou shalt never wash my feet." 
Before Jesus gets through explaining it, he flies to 
the other extreme and gives the Lord directions: 
"Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my 
head." He hasn't the patience to sit still in the 
darkness and watch, as directed; but after each 
plaintive plea from Jesus, he goes to sleep. But 
without being bidden, he draws his sword and 
blindly smites and threatens to make more mis- 
chief for the Master. Self-love also sounds through 
his rebuke of the Lord and his transfiguration 
speech ; he wanted an earthly kingdom and a place 
in it. For this he was willing to smite with the 
sword; for this he was asking when he said ''''Be- 
hold, we have forsaken all and followed thee: what 
shall we have therefor? " 

We naturally inquire into the underlying causes 
of these weaknesses and contradictions in Peter. 



92 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

From what we have already noticed and from 
other instances and glimpses of Peter, we believe 
we can safely infer that he did not understand the 
mission of Jesus. Together with nearly all the 
people of his day, the enemies as well as the friends 
of Jesus, Peter believed that it was the mission of 
the Messiah to deliver Israel from the Roman rule 
and re-establish the throne of David and Solomon. 
In this sense Peter also "trusted that it was He 
which should redeem Israel." To redeem Israel 
was to break the power of Rome and make of 
Israel a great and glorious nation. Peter had laid 
hold of this idea with all the ardor and enthusiasm 
of his impulsive nature. What a kingdom that 
would be with " the Son of the living God" on the 
throne ! And what privileges and prerogatives for 
those who should be great or favored by being near 
the King ! This he thought was coming on the 
mount. For this he was willing to draw the 
sword, to brave the prison and the death. 

But when Jesus so earnestly set His face toward 
Jerusalem, when on that momentous journey He so 
solemnly repeated the predictions of His suffering 
and death, Peter was shocked, he was bewildered, 
he was offended, he refused to give up his favorite 
idea — he didn't want a suffering Saviour. He had 



FALX AND RECONVERSION OF PETER. 93 

made up his mind that it should not be. His mind 
thus pre-occupied and pre-determiued, he was not 
in a teachable frame. And though Jesus spoke 
plainly and repeated His instructions, Peter under- 
stood not; he didn't want it so, and therefore per- 
suaded himself that it would not be so — that there 
must be some hidden meaning in the words of 
Christ. And so Peter remained in ignorance; he 
did not understand that Jesus must first be our 
Priest to offer up Himself as the Lamb of God for 
the sins of the world; he did not understand that 
His kingdom must be built on His Priesthood. 
He did not understand the principal lesson which 
Jesus as a prophet had come to teach, viz., the 
nature of His Priesthood and its necessity in the 
sinfulness of man. 

Oh, how hard it is to unlearn an error when that 
error is congenial and well-pleasing to the reason 
and the desires of the natural heart ! How hard to 
accept a truth when that truth is above reason, 
and makes the proud reason bow in child-like sub- 
mission, and when it is contrary to the desires of 
the natural heart and condemns that heart and its 
desires as sinful and guilty of wrath ! 

We might go a step further in Peter's case, and 
affirm that Peter did not understand the vicarious 



94 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

work of Jesus, because he didn't understand him- 
self. He didn't have a full and clear conception 
of the sinful and utterly ruined state of his own 
heart. He was conscious of a certain enthusiastic 
devotion to Jesus. He further believed that his 
salvation in some way depended on fellowship with 
this Jesus. But had he fully known the depravity, 
the deceitfulness, the lurking roots of treachery 
that lay hidden there, he would have had a deeper 
penitence and a more clinging faith. He would 
have felt that he needed first of all a sacrifice for 
sin, that there could be no kingdom for him with- 
out this. Peter lacked in intelligent conviction. 
His feeling was not the outgrowth of knowledge. 
Instead of being guided by principle, based on un- 
derstanding of self, and of his Master, he was 
guided too much by impulse. 

How important to be carefully instructed in the 
truth! How necessary to have clear ideas of God's 
way of salvation! How indispensable for safety 
and strength, especially in our dangerous age, to 
have piety built on principle, principle on convic- 
tion, and conviction on clear conceptions of God's 
truth. The most glowing spurts of enthusiasm, 
the most fervid feelings of love, cannot dispense 
with the necessity of instruction. We still need 
the catechism. 



FALL AND RECONVERSION OF PETER. 95 

To return to Peter. We are now ready to under- 
stand his shameful fall. 

He had followed after Jesus to the High Priest's 
palace. John had procured him admittance into 
the open court in the centre of the palace. The 
room in which the trial of Jesus was going on 
opened on this court-yard by a hallway or porch. 
Those that were without could see and hear all that 
was going on within. Peter was first accosted by 
a portress who kept the gate. To her he made a 
simple denial. The second time he was more 
closely questioned by another servant-maid of the 
High Priest, who charged him more directly and 
more publicly with being a follower of Jesus. 
"And agai?i he denied with an oath, I do not know 
the many About an hour afterwards he was still 
more forcibly accused by a kinsman of Malchus. 
Others that stood by joined in the charge, and told 
him that his very speech or dialect betrayed him. 
And now comes the lowest step. ' ' Then began he 
to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. ' ' 

What a fall was that for a disciple! And that 
disciple Peter! And Peter all this time in the pres- 
ence of Jesus! And all this only a few hours after 
that earnest warning, ' ' Simon, Simon, Satan hath 
desired to have thee, that he may sift thee as wheat ! ' ' 



g6 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

A few hours after that clear prediction, meant to 
prevent the denial: " Before the cock crow twice 
thou shalt deny 7ne thrice. ' ' And those tender words 
* '■But I have prayed for thee. ' ' And that confident 
boasting, " Though all should be offended, yet will 
not I. " "/ am ready to go with thee to prison and 
to death /' ' We are shocked at Peter ! We are 
ready to hold up our hands in holy horror! We 
are eager to hurl our anathemas at the miscreant! 

Let us not be hasty. We have before us the 
natural manifestations of the remains of "the old 
man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful 
lusts." We all carry the remnants of that same 
old nature. Let us not be high-minded, but fear. 

We have looked into the character of Peter, and 
seen in it the remote causes that led to that sad 
fall. There were also immediate causes. 

We have already seen that Peter did not know 
himself. Therefore, he did not mistrust himself. 
On the other hand, he had a large amount of self- 
confidence. Jesus had several times on that event- 
ful night exhorted him to " watch and pray that ye 
enter not into temptation : the spirit indeed is will- 
ing, but the flesh is weak." Peter did not feel 
himself weak, and therefore, after each exhortation 
to watch, he had gone to sleep. Had Peter watched 



FAIX AND RECONVERSION OF PETER. 97 

and prayed in the garden as directed, he would 
have been stronger when he came to the High 
'Priest's palace. Had he not trusted too much in 
self, he probably would not have slept away those 
momentous hours when his Redeemer was crushed 
to the earth under the load of man's sin. 

Here was an immediate cause of his fall. 

Another cause, closely connected with this one, 
was his running needless risks. He had not been 
told to follow Jesus to the trial. He had been 
clearly told that he could not and should not inter- 
fere to help his Master. His duty, for the present, 
was to let matters take their course. 

But he went to the palace. He mingled freely 
with the enemies of his Lord. He sat down among 
them and warmed himself by their fire. What a 
place for an apostle who had no mission there and 
no motive but to see the end. 

Ah, Peter! Better would it have been for you, 
one of the keenest smarts would have been spared 
the Master, if you had waited at a distance till He 
had again required your service! They that rush 
needlessly and heedlessly into danger have no right 
to count on divine protection. 

What a terrible weapon is ridicule! How many 
disciples have done like Peter! Uncalled by duty, 



98 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

and not for the sake of doing good, they have 
mingled with the enemies of their Lord. They 
have warmed themselves at the coal-fires of the 
world. They walk in the counsels of the ungodly, 
stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of 
the scornful. The finger of scorn is pointed at 
them. They wilt, and shamefully deny the Lord 
that bought them. 

Beware of bad company! 

But we hasten to notice the recovery or re-con- 
version of Peter. 

What brought it about? The crowing of the 
cock, say some. Such expounders tell us that a 
thunder-storm, a grievous loss, a sad disappoint- 
ment, the news of an accident, or the sight of a 
funeral, has converted many a sinner. We do not 
believe it. Neither the crowing of a cock, nor a 
fright, nor an affliction of any kind, is in itself a 
means of Grace. These things do not carry renew- 
ing or sanctifying power. They are of use only in 
so far as they make one think, as they direct atten- 
tion to, call to mind, and drive to the Word and the 
sacraments. These are God's means of Grace. 
They carry His Spirit, His life, and His power. 

So it was with Peter. He hadn't noticed or paid 
attention to the first crowing; but now that crowing 



FALL AND RECONVERSION OF PETER. 99 

startled him, it recalled the Word. Then Peter re~ 
membered the word of Jesus. That Word was the 
sword of the Spirit. It cut down, it showed Peter 
his awful sin. 

Thus do the providences of God bring the sinner 
to the Word and the Word does its own blessed 
work. Where there is or never has been a Word 
of God, there all the providences have never con- 
verted a single soul. 

As the Word pierced Peter's heart, he looked 
and saw Jesus turned and looking at him. Had 
Jesus turned permanently away from Peter, would 
Peter ever have really turned to Him ? We believe 
not. In this case also He turned to Peter before 
Peter turned to Him. God always comes first to 
us. 

That look of Jesus, so full of grief, and compas- 
sion, and yearning ! Oh ! how it went to Peter's 
heart. It recalled still more forcibly His Word. 

It was enough ; Peter did not resist that Word. 
It did its own blessed work. Peter went out and 
wept bitterly. All his bravado was gone. All his 
self- trust had vanished; he was humbled into the 
dust. His heart cried out, " I am vile." " I loathe 
myself." He was truly penitent. 

But his penitence grew into faith. Had it not, 



IOO NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

it would have turned to despair. His heart turned 
back to Jesus; eagerly, restlessly, sadly, and no 
doubt prayerfully, he awaited events. On the 
morning of the resurrection, he, with John, was 
the first man at the tomb; he was the first to enter 
into the sepulchre. Surely his faith had again 
turned to Jesus; he was again converted. Jesus 
sent to him His first personal message by the 
women; and Peter was the first apostle to have a 
private interview with his risen Lord. Jesus had 
predicted his conversion or turning back, and now 
the prediction was fulfilled. 

From the example of Peter ' ' let him that think- 
eth he standeth, take heed lest he fall," and let him 
who has fallen, learn how to rise again. 



SERMON VII. 



THE CONVERSION OF THE DYING THIEF. 

IvUKE xxiii. 39-44. 



Luke xxiii. 39-44. And one of the malefactors which were 
hanged railed on Him, saying, If thou be Christ, save Thyself 
and us. 

But the other answering him, rebuked him, saying, Dost not 
thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation ? And 
we indeed justly ; for we receive the due reward of our deeds ; 
but this man hath done nothing amiss. 

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou 
com est into (in) thy kingdom. 

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt 
thou be with me in paradise. 



SERMON VII. 

The scene of our text is laid amid the most 
tragic and exciting surroundings. 

A little outside of the city of Jerusalem, just be- 
yond its north wall, is a bare elevation, overlooking 
the city and its temple. An immense and excited 
crowd of people are gathered there. It is a mixed 
multitude. The rabble from the streets of Jerusa- 
lem "are there. The small traffickers who have 
come to the city to make money off the Passover 
crowd are there. The villagers and peasants of 
Judea and Galilee and remoter parts are there, 
come to Jerusalem- to keep the feast of the Passover. 
The officials and dignitaries of the temple, the re- 
ligious rulers and teachers of the people, the 
Scribes and Pharisees, the chief priests and elders 
are there. 

In the centre of that surging and boisterous mass 
of humanity is a band of Roman soldiers. In the 
midst of that band stand three crosses, and on them 
hang the naked victims, enduring the intensest 
agony and the fiercest tortures. 

And who is that central figure, so different from 
(103) 



104 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the others ? What means that sublime appearance, 
that look of heaven on His face, though marred 
with anguish and blood ? Let us look on in rever- 
ence and adoration. It is the Lamb of God on the 
self-chosen altar of sacrifice, making expiation for 
the sins of the world. 

We desire at present to look more particularly at 
one of the other victims. They are called male- 
factors or thieves — more literally, robbers. Prob- 
ably men like Barabbas, who had been engaged in 
revolt against the Roman government, and had 
been guilty of robbery and murder. 

The one is well-known to us by the name " The 
Dying Thief," or " The Penitent Malefactor." 

His sudden penitence and conversion have 
afforded matter for much speculation. They have 
been made the basis of dangerous errors and soul- 
destroying practices. 

It is well then for us to carefully and prayerfully 
study that remarkable conversion. We naturally 
look first for the cause of that change of heart. 
What was it that so powerfully influenced that 
criminal and softened his heart ? 

There are some who believe that he had come in 
contact with Jesus, or at least heard about Him in 
former times; that if he had not himself witnessed 



CONVERSION OF THE DYING THIEF. IO5 

His blameless and benevolent life, seen some of His 
mighty works and heard some of His life-giving 
words, others had told him of these things. There 
seems to be some ground for this position in the 
words ' ' this man hath done nothing amiss. ' ' 

But this is at best an inference, and we cannot 
build positively on it. 

But we do know that this man had been led out 
from the hall of Pontius Pilate, through the streets 
of Jerusalem and up to Gabbatha, in company with 
Jesus. The title, " This is Jesus the King of the 
Jews" had been either carried ahead or hung to 
the neck of Jesus. This alone was enough to make 
that man, in whom all seriousness and right feeling 
had not yet been crushed, think. He had noticed 
the strange calm dignity, the unearthly demeanor, 
the heavenly look of this fellow prisoner. He had 
heard and seen the bitter lamentations of the women 
for Jesus. He had heard those awful, search- 
ing and prophetic words from the thorn-crowned 
Jesus: " Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, 
but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, 
behold, the days are coming in the which they shall 
say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that 
never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. 
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall 



106 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do 
these things in a green tree, what shall be done in 
the dry." 

Pregnant words ! Fearful warning ! Words 
peculiarly quick and powerful and sharper than 
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing 
asunder of the joints and marrow, and discerners 
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

This malefactor had heard the taunts and jeers 
of the crowd. And from these bitter scoffings he 
learned what Jesus had claimed for Himself, that 
He was "the Christ," "the Son of God," that He 
' ' saved others. ' ' 

In the midst of their fiendish insults and injuries 
Jesus had calmly prayed, u Father, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do." How confidently 
this Sufferer cast those breaking eyes upward and 
called God "Father!" What divine love and 
compassion breathed forth in that petition! And 
all this the thief had heard and seen. Had he not 
had enough of that "engrafted Word which is able 
to save the soul?" 

Doubtless the Divine Spirit was at work. 
Through the spoken and the embodied Word. 
That Spirit was convincing him of his own sin, of 
Christ's righteousness, and of a judgment which 



CONVERSION OF THE DYING THIEF. 107 

threatened him, but from which the righteousness 
of this Divine Sufferer could save him. Thus was 
he brought to that true repentance that needeth not 
to be repented of. 

We notice briefly, in the next place, the mani- 
festation of his penitence. 

From the accounts of the two former evangelists 
it appears that he had even joined in, probably very 
feebly, with the railings of his fellow criminal. 
That very railing may have been an unintentional 
expression of the struggle and restlessness within 
his own breast. At any rate, he immediately re- 
pented of having said even an unguarded word 
against Jesus. 

And now, when his companion again breaks 
out in bitter scoffing, he openly rebukes him, and 
at the same time gives expression to the deep pen- 
itence of his own heart. 

He publicly confesses that they are having to do 
with God — that they have every reason to fear, 
and that they are under conde?nnation. 

Thus does he publicly confess his own guilt, 
without extenuation or palliation. He recognizes 
indeed they are justly under condemnation, for we 
receive the due reward of our deeds. 

Here indeed we see the very essence of true pen- 



108 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

itence. Here is undoubted evidence of a work of 
Grace. The sinner, in his natural state, can never 
thus realize his own ruined and condemned state, 
and the righteousness of whatever punishment 
God sees fit to lay upon him. When these symp- 
toms appear, then the Holy Spirit is doing His 
own blessed work. That warning to his brother 
sinner, that solicitude lest he plunge himself still 
deeper into the abyss of suicidal impenitence, that 
warning to stop, to turn, to recognize who it is at 
whom he is railing — all that also proves his peni- 
tence. 

As soon as the sinner is really concerned about 
his own salvation, just so soon does he become 
anxious for the safety of others. 

We notice in the third place the faith of this pen- 
itent one. 

He sees in Christ a holy, a sinless one, who has 
done nothing amiss. He confesses that Jesus 
1 ' knew no sin. ' ' He acknowledges and addresses 
Him as "Lord." He believes that this Lord has a 
kingdom at His disposal. He believes that He has 
power to help, and that His power extends beyond 
the grave. He believes that this King not only 
can but will save him. Therefore he turns to Him. 
He addresses to Him that humble yet large petition. 



CONVERSION OF THE DYING THIEF. 109 

In that petition he claims no merit. He pleads 
not that because of his own suffering, because of 
his own faith in the midst of unbelief, because of 
his confession in the midst of denial, that therefore , 
the Lord should save him. 

Oh, how many there are who comfort themselves 
with the idea that because they have had such a 
hard time in this world, because they have suffered 
so much, therefore the Lord will surely save them. 
Thus they would make a merit out of the suffering 
which they often bring upon themselves by their 
sin. Or they make a merit out of their faith. 
They flatter themselves that God owes them salva- 
tion, that they have earned it by believing. 

But faith earns no merit. It is only the beggar's 
hand that reaches out to receive the free gift. The 
malefactor makes no plea for self. He simply asks 
to be remembered. And thereby he bases his en- 
tire hope on Christ's merit and mediation. It is 
not faith in self, but faith in Christ. 

This has been called the brightest example of 
faith in the whole Bible, and there is ground for 
such a claim. 

Look at the situation. Jesus of Nazareth was 
hanging helpless in His blood. He was dying a 
felon's death. He had been tried by His own people, 



IIO NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

condemned as a deceiver and blasphemer. The 
public teachers of the Jews, the guardians of the 
faith and of the temple, repudiated and spurned 
Him. His own followers, who had professed im- 
plicit confidence in Him and His kingdom, had 
also given Him up and forsaken Him. 

In the face of all this, this man believes in Him. 
He sees Him hanging there, and on His bowed 
head there rests a crown of thorns. Yet he believes 
that to Him belongs a crown of glory, and the 
throne of the universe! Those eyes are filming in 
death, yet he believes that He is the Prince of Life 
and can give eternal life to all who believe. Those 
hands are now nailed fast, yet he believes that they 
can distribute the amnesties and endowments of 
heaven. 

Surely, from that malefactor's cross there shines 
a faith that is radiant with the reflection from the 
Redeemer's cross. Surely this dying thief is well- 
fitted to be the first trophy of the cross of Christ. 
Lord, give us such a faith as this ! 

And that faith is accepted. Jesus immediately 
responds, "Verily, I say unto thee, To-day thou shalt 
be with me in Paradise.' 1 '' Had the penitent prayed 
' ^Remember me V ' Jesus answers, ' ' Thou shalt be 
with me." Instead of getting merely a concern in 



CONVERSION OF THE DYING THIEF. Ill 

thought, he gets a place with Jesus "in Paradise.'''' 
The prayer looked . to an indefinite future, '''"when 
thou contest in thy kingdom.'''' The answer is 
"to-day" not in the distant future, thou shalt be 
with Me. 

Jesus always gives to the prayer of faith, far 
more exceedingly above all that we can ask or think. 
The promise is to Jerusalem, i. e. , to all the believ- 
ing, that " she hath received of the Lord" 1 s hand 
double for all her sins." 

We notice here, in passing, how the word of 
Christ to the penitent malefactor disposes of the 
old heresy lately again so prominently and boldly 
put forth by certain Adventists and other sects, that 
the soul does not live between the death and res- 
urrection of the body. If we had no other passage 
on the subject but this one, it alone would give the 
lie to all soul-sleeper heresies. But besides this 
passage, we have the clear declaration of Christ, 
when speaking of the God of 'Abraham and of Isaac 
and of Jacob, He says that God is not the God of the 
dead but of the living. We have the actual appear- 
ance of Moses and Elias recorded; one as a glorified 
body and one a disembodied spirit, showing clearly 
that there is a soul-life and a body -life beyond this 
world. Then we have also the narrative of the 



112 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

rich man and Lazarus. All which agrees with 
Christ's words here and with Paul's expression 
that to be absent from the body is to be present with 
the Lord. This is the teaching of the Word from 
beginning to end. 

Our passage likewise effectually disposes of the 
figment of a purgatory. If there were such a place 
where the sins of this life are to be purged by fire, 
there could have been no fitter case or place than 
this to set it forth. 

We desire to offer a few reflections in closing. 
We have here a case of true conversion. There is 
no room for the least doubt about its genuineness. 
It was also most certainly a conversion in the last 
hour of life and in full view of death. 

These are facts. There is nothing to be gained 
by denying them or explaining them away. These 
facts have however been used as the basis of un- 
warranted conclusions. They have been made the 
basis of soul-destroying doctrines and practices. 
They have been so used, or rather abused, as if they 
were written for the special purpose of encouraging 
the putting off of repentance to a dying day. This 
is certainly an inference without the shadow of a 
support, either in this narrative or in any part of 
the Bible. It is an inference inspired from beneath. 



CONVERSION OF THE DYING THIEF. 113 

The teaching of the Word is, "To-day, if you 
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts?" 1 
' ' Now is the accepted time;'' ' ' ( Now is the day of 
salvation;" "If thou hadst known, at least in this 
thy day, the things that belong tmto thy peace. ' ' To 
him who did postpone and say to his soul, "Soul, 
thou hast much goods laid tip for many days" God 
said, " Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be re- 
quired of thee" 

At the very most this incident teaches that it is 
barely possible to be saved in a dying hour. An 
old writer has well said, ' ' we have this one case 
that no penitent sinner may despair, only one that 
no sinner may presume." The Bible covers a 
history of nearly four thousand years, and yet it 
has only this one instance of a dying man's conver- 
sion. And even this case certainly was not one 
who had deliberately planned to postpone attention 
to his soul's salvation to a dying day. In all 
probability this was the first time that Christ and 
His Word were ever brought home to this criminal. 
It is quite likely a parallel case with those eleventh 
hour laborers who could truly say, "no man hath 
hired us." Certainly no parallel to those who de- 
liberately and with purpose slight every call from 

God's Word, wilfully shake off every impression 
6* 



114 N EW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

from above, grieve away the Spirit of God, and say, 
"I'll wait till I'm old or threatened with death." 
What must be the state of heart at which such 
arrive ? What must be the withering and harden- 
ing influence of madly saying, "I'll first grind out 
the corn of life; I'll use all the good meal for self, 
and then I'll offer the bran to God." For such per- 
sons there is not a single promise in the Bible. 
They can certainly extort no consolation from the 
story of the dying thief. The Grace of God in 
Christ Jesus can truly save to the uttermost all who 
come to God, i. e., all who come by the one way of 
genuine penitence and faith. But the probabili- 
ties all favor the supposition that those who wil- 
fully neglect and resist the means of Grace and 
postpone repentance to a dying day will never come 
to true penitence and faith. Like Jerusalem, these 
things will be "hid from their eyes." So-called 
death-bed conversions are nearly all spurious. 

Again it has been said, ' ' this man was saved 
without baptism, without the Lord's Supper, with- 
out belonging to church." Probably this is all 
true; but it by no means follows from this, as some 
would have it, that therefore the Church and the 
sacraments are of no consequence. To say this is 
to charge our Saviour with folly. He said, "/ will 



CONVERSION OF THE DYING THIEF. 115 

build my Church.'''' He instituted the sacraments 
and made them binding on His Church till He 
would come again. He connected promises and 
Grace with His own sacraments. Now if, after all^ 
one is just as well off without as with them, then 
our Saviour made a great mistake. 

But the dying thief was saved without them. 
Yes, for the simple and very good reason that he 
could not obtain them. Had they been available, 
doubtless he would most thankfully and devoutly 
have used them. But as he could not have them, 
God in mercy took the desire for the deed, and 
conveyed His saving Grace through the oral Word, 
without the Sacramental Word. 

Our Lutheran confessions and theologians clearly 
and tersely state the teaching of the Word on the 
necessity of the Sacraments when they say "not 
the absence but the contempt of the sacraments con- 
demns." 

With those who could have the sacraments of 
Christ and the privileges of the Church, but neglect 
them, it is contempt of what God has ordained as 
channels of Grace. And such can extract no justi- 
fication of their course and no hope of salvation 
from the conversion and salvation of the penitent 
malefactor. 



Il6 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

How sad that men will wrest even the most 
precious portions of the Scriptures to their own de- 
struction, and thus turn what was intended as a 
savor of life unto life into a savor of death unto 

death. 

There is a fountain filled with blood 

Drawn from Immanuel's veins, 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood, 

Lose all their guilty stains. 

The dying thief rejoiced to see 

That fountain in his day, 
And there may I, as vile as he, 

Wash all my sins away. 



SERMON VIII. 



The Tests and Fruits of a True Conversion 

as seen in Peter's Reinstatement 

into the apostleship. 

John xxi. 15-20. 



John xxi. 15-20. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to 
Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than 
these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I 
love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 

He saith to him again, the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, 
lovest thou me ? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord ; thou knowest 
that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 

He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest 
thou me? Peter was grieved, because he said unto him the 
third time, Lovest thou me ? And he said unto him, Lord, thou 
knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith 
unto him, Feed my sheep. 

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou 
girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst: but when 
thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and an- 
other shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not. 

This spoke he, signifying by what, death he should glorify 
God. And when he had spoken this he saith unto him, Follow 
me. 



SERMON VIII. 

In a former discourse we considered the Fall and 
Re-conversion of Peter. 

We saw how after all the admonitions, warnings, 
and prayers of Jesus, after all his self-confident 
boasting, Peter shamefully denied his Lord. He 
denied Him three times. 

We saw further how the crowing of the cock 
brought to Peter's remembrance the Word of the 
Lord, and how that Word fell like a hammer and 
burned like afire. We saw Peter deeply penitent 
in his bitter tears. We saw again how Peter did 
not, like Judas, turn his back entirely on Jesus and 
give way to despair. But even as Jesus had turned 
upon Peter a look of sorrow, compassion, and love, 
so Peter turned his penitent heart towards Jesus, 
and yearned for forgiveness and restoration. We 
noticed how anxiously Peter awaited further devel- 
opments, how he was early at the sepulchre, was 
the first man to enter in and see the abandoned 
grave-clothes of his dear Lord, and was the first 
apostle to have a private interview with the risen 
Jesus. Thus did Peter show his faith. He was 
turned back again, re-converted. 
("9) 



120 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

At that private interview on the afternoon of 
Resurrection day, Peter no doubt made full confes- 
sion, and Jesus granted full absolution. 

On the evening of the same day also, Jesus met 
the ten apostles in that upper chamber. Peter was 
one of them. There Jesus recognized the apostle- 
ship of all of them by His emphatic words: " Peace 
be unto you : as my Father hath sent me, even so 
send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed 
on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost. Wlwsesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are 
retained. ' ' 

Thus had Jesus, on the very day of the Resur- 
rection, recognized the apostleship of Peter. But 
notwithstanding this, it was due to Peter, and it 
was due to the other apostles, that before Jesus re- 
ascended to His Father, Peter should make a spe- 
cial and public profession and receive a special and 
public commission. It is this special profession 
and commission of Peter that is recorded in our 
text. In this deeply interesting scene Jesus brings 
out and shows us the Tests and Fruits of a true 
Conversion. 

We notice first how skilfully and yet how forci- 
bly Jesus reminds Peter of his sin. It is well to 



TESTS AND FRUITS OF CONVERSION. 121 

be reminded often of weakness and sin. Such re- 
minders are calculated to keep believers humble, 
to make them more watchful and prayerful, to in- 
cline them to a more diligent use of the means of 
Grace, and in every way to keep them closer to 
Christ. Such reminders are also very good tests of 
spiritual life. Those who have little or no spirit- 
ual life, grow impatient under such reminders. 
The self-righteous become angry and turn away 
from him who shows and recalls their sin. But a 
true Christian, one who has in him the elements 
of the new life, viz., penitence and faith, grows 
humble and prayerful and pure under them. 
Thus it was with Peter. 

That night of fruitless toil and that miraculous 
draught at Jesus' word would naturally recall to 
Peter that similar night and miracle three years 
before. It would remind him how, at that time, 
he was clearly called into the apostolic band to be 
a "fisher of men." It would naturally bring up 
the reflection : ' ' How unworthy of my office and 
calling have I proved." 

And then that " ' k fire of coals, ' ' how naturally 
would it recall that coal-fire in the court-yard of 
the high priest's palace! 

But when Jesus asked that question three times 



122 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

over, then would Peter keenly feel the reminder to 
the thrice repeated denial. 

And in that searching question Jesus never calls 
him Peter, but only Simon, son of Jonas. This 
was his old name; the name by which he was 
known when he plied his trade as a fisherman, and 
knew not Jesus. When he became a disciple Jesus 
had said: "Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, 
by interpretation, a stone. ' ' After this he was gen- 
erally known by that new name, either the Syriac 
Cephas or the Greek Petros, which reminded him 
of his new life and destiny. But here Jesus ad- 
dresses him every time by the old earthly name, 
as if to say "Where is that Cephas, that rock 
which seemed so firm ? Is not all that professed 
strength and stability gone ? Is it not merely the 
son of Jonas that is left?" Peter doubtless felt 
the reminder, and smarted under it. He was 
grieved. 

Still further, that first question inquired not 
merely after some love, but after a special, a super- 
ior love. Lovest thou me more than these ? Again 
Peter would recollect how he had claimed superior 
devotion. He had put himself above all the rest. 
' ' Though all should be offended, yet will not I. ' ' 
Where was that more love ? 



TESTS AND FRUITS OF CONVERSION. 123 

Thus did Jesus probe that hitherto wayward, im- 
pulsive, and self-confident apostle. Thus did He 
test the sincerity and the genuineness of that peni- 
tence. Thus did He, at the same time, deepen that 
godly sorrow, and gently draw it more into that 
repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. 

Jesus was also testing and developing Peter's 
faith. Was Peter's faith strong enough to admit 
and bow to the authority of Jesus to thus examine 
and probe him? Did Peter believe that this Ques- 
tioner examined not merely with words, but that 
He searched the heart, that He looked in upon the 
hidden springs and motives and desires of the in- 
most soul ? Peter's faith stood the severe test. He 
not only recognized the authority of Jesus, but 
clearly confessed His divine omniscience when he 
said " Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou know- 
est that I love thee." Peter's faith was not only 
tested and proved, but in the testing his faith was 
developed and strengthened. 

The penitence and faith of Peter were proved. 
The new life was there. Peter was again in a con- 
verted state. 

But Jesus does still more. He wants to lay bare 
that which is the very breath of the new life. 
This leads us to notice secondly how Jesus probes 
for Love. 



124 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Jesus had certainly loved all the disciples. But 
to Peter He had granted special manifestations of 
love. How had He not borne with his wayward- 
ness! How often He had reached out to restrain 
and uphold the impulsive one! How patiently He 
had instructed him! How earnestly He had ad- 
monished and warned him! How gently He had 
led him! How tenderly He had prayed for him! 
How freely He had forgiven him! 

It is in the very nature of love to demand love. 
Scarcely anything is so hard to bear as unrecipro- 
cated love. Therefore Jesus asks for Peter's love. 
Therefore those earnest, searching questions. Jesus 
wants to know from Peter whether that heart of 
his is really attached to Him, whether it yearns 
for Him, whether it pants for Him " as the hart 
panteth after the water-brooks. ' ' Jesus wants to see 
whether that heart beats warm for Him, whether 
it longs for closer fellowship and communion; 
whether it eagerly responds to His approach, and 
hears music in His name and words. Jesus wants 
the warm, fervent, glowing feelings of the heart 
for Himself. 

Ah! yes; Jesus demands real love from all who 
would be His. As we shall see in a moment, Jesus 
is not satisfied with a religion that is all feeling 



TESTS AND FRUITS OF CONVERSION. 1 25 

and nothing but feeling. But, on the other hand, 
let it never be forgotten that the Word of God no- 
where recognizes a religion without feeling. There 
is no such thing as a cold-hearted, loveless Chris- 
tian. Feeling has its place in true religion. It 
is a vital part of genuine piety. It is not the 
beginning of the new life. It does not come first 
in conversion. It is not the first step in a return 
towards God. The first element of an inner, 
spiritual life is penitence, the next is faith; these 
two belong together. They are the new life. But 
after penitence has begun and grown into faith, 
then love is sure to be present. It is the inner 
witness, the manifestation, the very breath of the 
new life. Lovest thou me? was asked of Peter. 
Lovest thou me ? is asked of every one who professes 
to be turned from darkness to light and from the 
power of Satan to God. 

That the love which Jesus demands is not a mere 
sentiment is seen in its outward manifestations. 
We might call these the fruits which grow on the 
tree of love, which again springs from the roots of 
penitence and faith. 

This brings us to notice thirdly, how Jesus brings 
out and shows the fruits of love. 

We have seen that love is the vital breath of the 



126 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

new life; that it manifests itself in the inner life; 
that its seat is in the emotional part of our nature; 
that we love with the heart. 

But this love of the heart manifests itself or 
shows itself in the outward life. It dare not remain 
confined in the heart. Jesus does not recognize a 
secret love. He knew that Peter had love in his 
heart; but that love is to be called out; it is to prove 
itself. And now we shall see how clearly Jesus 
teaches that mere feeling is not enough. 

First: That love of the heart must be confessed 
by the lips. Peter must speak it out three times. 
Peter is to be taught that public confession is nec- 
essary. He is to be taught further that such confes- 
sion is to be made not only before the friends of 
Jesus, but also before His enemies. Peter had 
heretofore more than once witnessed a good con- 
fession before Jesus and the other disciples. That 
is not so hard to do. It is easy to confess the sen- 
timents of those around us. But Peter had proved 
insufficient to confess before enemies. He is now 
to learn that his love is to be strong enough to 
confess that faith before bitter and angry foes. His 
love is to enable him to declare his convictions 
before chief priests, and scribes, and elders, and a 
howling mob. How nobly did Peter's love after- 



TESTS AND FRUITS OF CONVERSION. 1 27 

wards bear this fruit. When arrested, tried before 
the Sanhedrin, charged to cease preaching Jesus 
and the resurrection, and threatened with dire pun- 
ishment in case of disobedience, Peter boldly chal- 
langed them and said : ' ' Whether it be right in the 
sight of God, to hearken unto you more than unto 
God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things 
which we have seen and hear -d." Acts iv. 19, 20. 

The love of the heart must speak from the lips, 
even before enemies. Again: Love shows itself in 
service. True love is not only willing but glad to 
labor for the loved one. Therefore, every time that 
Peter professed to love, Jesus bade him prove that 
love by labor. ' ' Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. ' ' 

Invest thou Me? Then love those who are 
mine. Thou knowest that it was said of Me ages 
ago: u He shall gather the lambs in His arms and 
carry them in His bosom.' 1 '' Therefore, as the Good 
Shepherd, I have a special regard for the lambs. 
Feed them "with the sincere milk of the Word, that 
they may grow thereby. ' ' Have a special care for 
the weak and tender ones. Look after the children 
and after such new disciples who are as yet babes 
in Christ. Labor for them. Feed them. Neglect 
not the older ones. Feed my sheep. Give to them 
who are able to bear it the strong meat of God's 



128 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Word. Let your whole life be a service in shep- 
herding my flock. Thus let your love make you 
not only willing but eager to spend and to be spent 
in my service. Such service is a proof and a fruit 
of love. And without willingness to labor, profes- 
sions of love amount to nothing. True love is 
something more than mere sentimental gush. 
Peter's love did thus prove itself. His whole after- 
life was a service of love. How earnestly and 
enthusiastically he gathered in the sheep and the 
lambs! How glad he was to announce to that first 
in-gathered flock: "For the promise is unto you 
and to your children." How eagerly he preached 
the Gospel in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, 
and afterwards was the first to carry it to the Gen- 
tiles, and thus admitted and tended some of the 
1 ' other sheep, not of this fold. ' ' He became second 
only to Paul in his missionary activity and left for 
the Church of all ages those two precious epistles 
addressed in general to the strangers scattered 
abroad. Peter's love bore rich fruit. 

Finally, true love is ready to sacrifice and to suffer. 

After Peter had so earnestly avowed his devotion 
to his Master, Jesus further told him that even con- 
fession in the face of opposers and blasphemers, 
and in addition to that a life of incessant and 



TESTS AND FRUITS OF CONVERSION. 1 29 

wearisome toil, was not all — that still severer 
tests would be made and still more precious fruit 
demanded. 

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou- wast 
young, thou girdedst thyself and walkedst whither 
thou wouldst: but zvhen thou shall be old, thou shall 
stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee 
and carry thee whither thou wouldst not.' 1 ' 1 Cer- 
tainly very pregnant, earnest, and searching words! 
Words of the most vital import to all who would 
be or profess to be God's children! Jesus reminds 
Peter that there was a time when he was his own 
master. In those young days, when he knew not 
Jesus, he followed no law but inclination. Thou 
girdedst thyself and walkedst whither thou wouldst. 
What a lifelike portrayal of the unconverted youth ! 
Such an one asks only, what do I feel like doing ? 
Where do I feel like going ? But now, Peter, thou 
hast another Master. Thou hast voluntarily be- 
come His follower. Thou professest to love Him. 
Now thou art no longer thine own. Now thou 
must always say, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
do ? Henceforth another shall gird thee. All self 
inclination, all self pleasing, must now give way to 
pleasing Him whofrst loved thee and gave Him- 
self for thee. 



130 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

The time will come when because of thy love 
others will carry thee whither thou wouldst not. 
Peter had to suffer for his Lord before he could be 
glorified with Him. He was imprisoned. He was 
girded with chains to sentinel soldiers. He was 
bound to the whipping-post and scourged. And 
at last, as all the earliest records testify, he was 
bound to a cruel cross and crucified with his head 
downward. And thus, when he was old, he proved 
that his love was stronger than death, and by his 
death he glorified God. And thus did that love 
bear the final test and yield the choicest fruit. It 
was more than a sentiment. 

Dear reader, Do you love Jesus ? How is it with 
your heart? Is it listless, lifeless, cold? Or does it 
beat warm with affection ? Does it yearn for closer 
and more intimate union and communion ? Does it 
find delight in the communings of the closet ? 
Does it bound with pleasure at sound of His Word ? 
Does it find its highest joy in communing with that 
dear Master in His Church, in His Word, and es- 
pecially His Sacramental Feast? Is that love of 
the heart ready whenever called upon to speak 
from your lips? When enemies surround you, 
when your Church, your Bible, your Lord are rid- 
iculed and sneered at, are you ready always to de- 



TESTS AND FRUITS OF CONVERSION. 131 

fend them? When you are questioned by the 
scoffer, when the finger of scorn is pointed at you, 
are you ready to say : "Yes, I am trying to be a 
Christian. I do love Jesus ? ' ' 

Does your love prompt you to labor ? Do you try 
to bring the straying and neglected lambs, the wan- 
dering and endangered sheep, into the fold of the 
Church ? Do you try to feed them by telling them 
of Jesus and His love? How often have you 
spoken to your careless, God-less neighbor or ac- 
quaintance or companion about these things? How 
many unpleasant duties have you lately performed 
for Jesus? or how many disagreeable errands have 
you gone? Lovest thou? Feed ! Feed ! Feed ! 

Is your love willing to sacrifice? Do you still 
gird yourself and go where you feel like going? 
Or do you always ask yourself, Where does my 
Ivord want me to go? What does He want me to 
do ? Does your love always constrain you and per- 
mit Him to gird and lead ? 

And finally, Is your love willing to suffer ? Are 
you ready, for love of Him who loved you with an 
everlasting love, and with loving kindness drew 
you, who stands before you with pierced hands and 
feet and side and asks, Lovest thou me, to meet 
opposition, to lose money, to lose friends, to cut 



132 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

associates, to turn your back on your former de- 
lights? Are you ready to take up your cross and 
follow Him ? 

Blessed are they who can look up and say and 
sing: 

" Do not I love Thee, O my Lord? 
Behold my heart and see ; 
And cast each idol from its throne, 
That dares to rival Thee. 

" Is not Thy Name melodious still 
To mine attentive ear ? 
Doth not each pulse with pleasure thrill 
My Saviour's voice to hear? 

" Hast Thou a lamb in all Thy flock 
I would disdain to feed ? 
Hast Thou a foe before whose face 
I fear Thy cause to plead ? 

" Thou know'st I love Thee, dearest Lord ; 
But O, I long to soar 
Far from the sphere of mortal joys, 
That I may love Thee more. ' 



SERMON IX. 



The Conversion of the Three Thousand. 

Acts ii. 37-42. 



Ads ii. 37-42. Now when they heard this, they were pricked 
in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apos- 
tles, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? 

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every 
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, 
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all 
that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 

And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, 
Save yourselves from this untoward generation. 

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized : and 
the same day there were added unto them about three thousand 
souls. 

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and 
fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 



SERMON IX. 

ThK scene of our text is laid 'in Jerusalem. The 
time is that memorable day of Pentecost when the 
Christian Church received her baptism from above, 
and was fully equipped for her work and mission. 
The church in Jerusalem was then made up of 
about one hundred and twenty members, with the 
twelve apostles for a nucleus. The apostles had 
been instructed by Jesus to tarry at Jerusalem 
until they would be endowed with power from on 
high. That full endowment had now come, es- 
pecially upon the twelve, and also upon the whole 
one hundred and twenty; otherwise the prophecy 
quoted by Peter would not have been fulfilled. 
Not that there had been no Spirit upon the be- 
lievers of the Old or New Testament before this. 
Had there been no Spirit of God at all, there could 
have been no believers at all. For the Grace that 
makes believers comes not by might, nor by power, 
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. 

But the Spirit had not come in His full New 
Covenant measure and power. This full and com- 
plete endowment of which the prophets and Christ 
(i35) 



136 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

had spoken, and for which all saints had waited 
and longed, had now come. The infant Church 
was now fully equipped and furnished for her great 
work. The endowment was to be permanent. The 
Spirit had come to stay. Jesus had promised Him 
as a substitute for His own visible presence. Jesus 
assured His sorrowing disciples that He would not 
leave them comfortless or desolate or orpha?ied. He 
had clearly and unequivocally promised, "He shall 
abide with you forever. ' ' 

Had He come as a transient visitor, to operate 
mightily and then depart, and at a time of special 
interest to come again, and thus arbitrarily come 
and go, and alight now on this one and now on 
that one, as some seem to imagine, the Church 
would indeed be left in an uncertain and comfort- 
less state. 

Since He came to stay, we need look for no 
more Pentecosts. The Spirit has been in the 
Church since that coming. Had He ever left the 
Church entirely, it would have ceased to exist. 
He began on that very day of His coming to oper- 
ate through means. He did not fall on the three 
thousand as flames of fire, but reached them 
through Word and Sacrament. 

It is the Conversion of the Three Thousand that 
we now desire to study. 



CONVERSION OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 1 37 

We inquire first who were these three thousand? 

It was the season of Pentecost. The city was 
crowded with strangers come from near and far to 
worship at the Feast. They were all Jews, or such 
as had accepted the Jewish religion. The blessings 
of the Gospel also were to come to the Jew first and 
then through the Jew to the Gentile. 

Of these Jews, many were devout. They were 
sincere believers in and worshippers of Israel's 
God. To these belonged the persons who were 
amased and were in doubt, saying one to another, 
What meaiieth this ? 

Others were frivolous triners or scoffers who 
mocking said, These men are full of new wine. 

There were present also many who had been 
there at the last Passover. They had witnessed 
the exciting scenes of the trial and crucifixion of 
Jesus. They had joined in the insane cry of the 
multitude: ''''Away with Him! Crucify Him ! Cru- 
cify Him ! " Peter therefore directly charges them 
with having part in the awful crime of crucifying 
the Son of God. 

All these people had now had six weeks' time for 

reflection. Some of them at least must have heard 

of the strange scenes that attended the death of 

Jesus. They had noticed the earthquake and 

7* 



138 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

darkness. They had heard of the rending of the 
temple's vail. They had heard also of the resur- 
rection. The more thoughtful among them must 
have pondered and wondered and questioned con- 
cerning these things. To such a multitude Peter 
preached his sermon, and under it three thousand 
were converted. 

We notice secondly the conversion itself. 

In looking at the process of their conversion 
we notice how first their minds were enlightened. 

They looked at and saw Jesus of Nazareth in an 
entirely new light. They saw that He was indeed 
the Anointed of the Father, the promised Mes- 
siah, the Son of God. They understood now that 
His coming, His life, His death, His resurrection, 
ascension, mediatorial reign and sending of the 
Spirit, that all this was a clear and complete fulfil- 
ment of the prophecies, the hopes, the prayers and 
longings of the saints of all ages. 

On the other hand, they saw themselves in a 
new light. They were now willing to look deep 
down into their own hearts, and look back over 
their own lives. They saw their hearts full of 
nothing but sin. They saw their lives all defiled 
by transgression. 

Thus were they enlightened to understand the 



CONVERSION OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 1 39 

Saviour, His person and His work. Thus had 
they learned also to see themselves as poor lost and 
condemned creatures. This was the first step in 
their conversion. It ought to be the first step in 
every true conversion. Before we can expect any 
one to turn from the wrong to the right road, he 
must be instructed as to what "is the right road, and 
why it is right, and conversely why the one he is 
on is wrong. 

But enlightenment alone is not enough. It is 
not yet conversion. One might be considerably 
enlightened, and yet not saved. It is possible to 
have quite a clear understanding of Christ and His 
salvation, to know much about Him, and not know 
Him as a personal Saviour. 

It is possible to have clear ideas of the nature 
and guilt of sin in general, to be able to give ac- 
curate and sound definitions of sin, to be able even 
to prove one's answers by properly quoted Scrip- 
ture, and yet have no deliverance from sin and con- 
demnation. The three thousand did not only have 
their minds enlightened; but through the mind 
the heart was reached. 

This brings us to the second step in the process. 
They were pricked in their hearts. 

Not only did they now know about Jesus of 



140 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Nazareth, and have entirely new views concerning 
Him, but they also felt themselves verily guilty be- 
cause of Him. Not only did they see that in gen- 
eral all are sinners, and that sin in its inner essence 
is a rejection of Christ, but their own hearts were 
pierced with the awful feeling of their own fearful 
guilt and condemnation. They felt the awful load 
of personal guilt and ruin. Restless and self-con- 
demned, each one was bowed low, and the lan- 
guage of his heart was: " I abhor myself.'''' Thus 
had the arrow of conviction pierced to the quick, 
and each one was ready to reproach himself as the 
guilty one. These were feelings of true penitence. 
This was that godly sorrow that leadeth to repent- 
ance U7ito life, not to be repented of 

And in such feeling we believe. More or less of 
it must enter into every true conversion. It came 
as the result of divine illumination. Instruction 
must come first. The mind must first be taught. 
The judgment must first be reached and influenced, 
and through it the heart or the feelings. The 
grievous mistake that many make, especially 
among modern revivalists, is that they appeal di- 
rectly to and work immediately on the feelings. 
They play on the nerves, they work up an excite- 
ment, they rouse a deep and violent feeling, but it 



CONVERSION OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 141 

is of the flesh. It is not the result of intelligent 
conviction. Hence it is as the morning cloud and 
as the early dew. It is groundless enthusiasm, and 
results in the saddest disappointments and the most 
dangerous reaction, doubt, and often confirmed un- 
belief. Such feeling is not religion, but a snare 
and a delusion. 

We notice in the third place how the three thou- 
sand had their wills influenced. Their desires and 
purposes were turned in a new direction. They 
manifested this in their anxious and sincere in- 
quiry: u Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 
We have been doing wrong. We have been pur- 
suing a sinful course. We now want to do right. 
We want to be helped on the right road. 

Here was a true turning round, a real conver- 
sion. The language of the natural, sinful, and 
unchanged will is, ' ' we will not have this man to 
reign over us. ' ' The sad and repeated complaint 
of God and Christ is, ye will not come. I would 
have gathered thee. Ye would not. 

These men now say we will. Only tell us how. 

In every true conversion, as a result of an enlight- 
ened mind and a contrite heart there is a changed 
will. This was the third step. And now we see 
how the whole man was changed. There was a 



142 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

change in the intellect, in the sensibilities, and in 
the will. There were new views, new emotions, 
and new purposes. "Behold, I make all things 
new ! ' ' 

In all this process we must also see the springing 
and budding of faith. Had they not believed what 
Peter preached unto them, they would not have 
been pricked in their heart. Had they not believed 
what Peter said about Jesus of Nazareth, they would 
not have felt guilty concerning their part in His 
death. Neither would they have accepted baptism 
in His name, and expected through it the remission 
of sins. They clearly believed. Their penitence 
had grown into faith. And thus we see that they 
had the elements of the new life, penitence and 
faith. And when Peter told them to repent, he 
here used that word in its broadest sense, as cover- 
ing the whole process of conversion, and showing 
them that they were already "doing" what was 
necessary to salvation. 

We inquire in the third place; "How was this 
conversion brought about V ' 

The answer is not far to seek. It was brought 
about clearly by Peter's preaching of the Word. 
Thus did God in the very outstart show to the 
young Church that henceforth His Spirit would op- 



CONVERSION OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 143 

erate through the Word, and that it pleased Him by 
the foolishness of preaching to save them that be- 
lieve. 

Peter, in preaching the Word, preached Christ as 
the very heart and substance of that Word. He 
showed them that this Pentecostal miracle was only 
a direct and clear fulfilment of their own prophecy; 
that their psalms also clearly predicted fesus of 
Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by 
miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by 
Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also 
know. He went on to sketch rapidly the death, 
resurrection, and exaltation of this Jesus, and 
showed how David had foreseen and foretold all 
this. He charges them directly and plainly with 
the awful sin of rejecting and crucifying this Lord. 
He assures them that this same Jesus had shed forth 
this which they did now see and hear. 

And this Word was the vehicle of the Spirit. 
Through it He convinced them of their own sin, 
their need of another's righteousness, even Christ's, 
and the certainty of judgment on all the children 
of the prince of this world. The Spirit of wisdom 
and light comes through the Word, and therefore 
J ' The entrance of thy Word giveth light. ' ' The 
Spirit in the Word convinced them of sin, and there- 



144 N ^W TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

fore : "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Their 
wills were turned, "not by might nor by power, 
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord, ' ' and the Gospel, 
through which that Spirit comes, became "the 
power of God unto salvation." They certainly 
did "not by their own reason or strength believe 
in Jesus Christ, their Lord, or come to Him," for 
11 No man can say that fesus is the Lord, but by the 
Holy Ghost." That Holy Ghost came with the 
Word, and so ' ' faith came by hearing, and hearing 
by the Word of God." 

They gladly received the Word. They might 
have resisted. This is man's melancholy preroga- 
tive. Man cannot take the first step towards sav- 
ing himself. God must always come first to the 
sinner. But man can dismiss the Saviour when 
He does come. Man cannot raise himself out of 
the deep pit and the miry clay, but he can beat 
back the hand that reaches down from heaven to 
raise and save him. No doubt many who heard 
Peter did resist. The charge of Stephen a few 
weeks later was, "Ye do always resist the Holy 
Ghost." 

Thus does God reserve to Himself all the glory 
of saving man, and yet throw on man all the re- 
sponsibility of being saved. It all becomes clear 



CONVERSION OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 145 

when we accept the old, sound and scriptural doc- 
trine, that the Spirit of God carries the Grace of 
God through the Word of God. 

But why did Peter instruct those people to be 
baptized? Was not the Word enough? Yes. And 
baptism is only another and a further application 
of that same Word, for ' ' Baptism is not simply 
water, but it is the water comprehended in God's 
command, and connected with God's Word." 
(IvUther's Catechism.) There is no valid baptism 
without the Word. Oceans of water, without God's 
Word used in the administration, would be utterly 
useless. Baptism has therefore been well called 
"the visible Word," or "the sacramental Word." 
There is a great blessing in baptism, because 
the Spirit-bearing Word is always connected with 
it. Therefore, these strong expressions, "Born of 
water and of the Spirit ;" " Be baptized . . . . for 
the remission of sins /" " The washing of regener- 
ation and renewing of the Holy Ghost /' ' ' 'Baptism 
doth also now save us;" "Baptized into Christ" 
and other like forcible passages. 

There was indeed a great blessing to these peni- 
tent believers in their baptism. The preached 
Word carried the Spirit and Grace of God to them 
collectively. The sacramental Word carried them 



146 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

to them individually. The preached Word offered 
and carried forgiveness and salvation to the crowd. 
The sacramental Word carried them to them one 
by one. The former held out pardon and life to 
the mass, the latter to each one personally and in- 
dividually, as if he were the only one. Under the 
preaching of the Word, some timid, doubting one 
might have said, ' ' That is all very good, but I fear 
it is not for me. " But when the water and Word 
of baptism are applied, and each one is taken 
singly and called by name, then faith is implanted 
and mightily strengthened, as each recipient real- 
izes, the blessing is now bestowed on me personally. 

And this individualizing, this taking of each 
penitent, hungry and thirsty one by himself, is in- 
deed one of the chief blessings in both Sacraments, 
in the Sacrament of the altar as well as in the 
Sacrament of baptism. 

And thus we see that the conversion of this mul- 
titude was brought about by the means of Grace, 
as ordained by Christ, the Great Head of the 
Church, viz., the Word and the Sacraments — for 
Ihe other Sacrament also was used after they were 
baptized. 

And these were indeed all the means that the 
apostles used at any time. They did not worry 



CONVERSION OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 147 

themselves with the question " How shall we reach 
the masses?" They had faith enough in Christ 
to believe in the means they had received from His 
hands, and these they prayerfully used. 

And these same old means, wherever rightly 
used, have been effective in the conversion of sin- 
ners and the sanctifying of saints. 

We might notice in passing here that these con- 
versions, as nearly all the conversions recorded in 
the New Testament, were those of adults, to whom 
the Gospel had come for the first time. And there- 
fore we read of adult baptisms. The parents had 
to be reached before the children. After the parents 
had become believers, we have no doubt whatever 
that they had their children also baptized. Peter, 
indeed, when he exhorts them to be baptized, 
says in the same breath, "for the promise is unto 
you and to your children" As Jews also they 
knew that it was God's own order that infants had 
a place in the covenant, and received the Old Tes- 
tament sacrament of circumcision. God had never 
revoked this, His own order of infant membership 
in His Church. Therefore it stood; for man can- 
not annul what God has ordained. 

In conclusion, we notice briefly the evidences of 
these conversions. 



148 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

First they were ' ' added ' ' to the apostles. In 
the last verse of the chapter it is said "and the 
Lord added to the Church daily such as should be 
saved." They at once became living and active 
members of the Church of Christ. A true convert 
always wants to have a spiritual home. He finds 
it in the Church. He cannot despise or make light 
of the institution founded by Christ for the salva- 
tion of man. 

Again, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' 
doctrine. They accepted the teaching or doctrine 
of the apostles. They learned more and more of 
it. They held fast to it. They had no notions or 
opinions of their own. The apostles' doctrine was 
good enough for them. They wanted no faith ex- 
cept that which was once delivered to the saints. 

Further: They continued in the fellowship, in 
the community, or brotherhood of the apostles. 
They wanted no other society. They no longer 
found pleasure in the company of unbelievers. 
They cut the acquaintance of those who were ene- 
mies of their Lord. A blessed fruit, a sure test of a 
true conversion. They continued in the fellowship. 

And still more: They continued in the breaking 
of bread. That is, they ate their evening meals 
together. These meals were closed with the Lord's 



CONVERSION OF THE THREE THOUSAND. 1 49 

Supper. They partook frequently and devoutly 
of that Holy Sacrament. No doubt they found it 
meat indeed and drink indeed. 

A true convert always prizes highly the Com- 
munion of the Lord's Supper. He does not slight 
and neglect it for every trivial excuse. He finds 
in it the Holy of Holies of the militant Church, 
the most sacred spot and act this side of heaven. 

And finally: They continned steadfastly in 
prayers. No doubt, they had their private prayers. 
There is no such thing as a Christian without 
prayer. While the true child of God wants to have 
his times and seasons to be alone with his Father, 
he also wants the help and blessing of public 
prayer. These early Christians wanted the prayers 
of the Church. They continued in prayer. Every 
believer wants the fellowship of prayer. He wants 
the Church's prayers. He wants to lift his heart 
upwards on the congregation's devotions. To him 
there is an inspiration and an elevation in such 
public worship, which lifts him above the sordid 
things of earth, and helps him to set his affections 
on things in heaven. 

And thus did this new life of these new converts 
manifest itself. Thus did it develop and increase 
more and more. 



150 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Are we converted? Does our life thus manifest 
itself in the beauty of holiness, in the Communion 
of Saints ? 

What strange perplexities arise, 
What anxious fears and jealousies ! 
What crowds in doubtful light appear, 
How few, alas, approved and clear ! 

And what am I ? my soul, awake, 
And an impartial survey take. 
Does no dark sign, no ground of fear, 
In practice or in heart appear? 

What image does my spirit bear? 

Is Jesus formed and living there? 

Ah, do His lineaments divine 

In thought, and word, and action shine ? 

Searcher of hearts, O search me still ; 
The secrets of my soul reveal ; 
My fears remove ; let me appear 
To God and my own conscience clear ! 



SERMON X. 



THE CONVERSION OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 

Acts viii. 35-39. 



Ads viii. 35-39. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began 
at the same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus. 

And as they went on their way they came unto a certain 
water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth 
hinder me to be baptized ? 

And Philip said, If thou believest with all thy heart, thou 
mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ 
is the Son of God. 

And he commanded the chariot to stand still : and they went 
down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch : and he 
baptized him And he went on his way rejoicing. 



SERMON X. 

The young Church had just received her first 
baptism of blood. Peter, who only a few weeks ago 
had shamefully backed down and denied his Lord 
because of the finger-point and sneer of a Jewish 
maiden, had now bravely suffered imprisonment 
and scourging, rather than cease to teach and to 
preach Jesus Christ. John, who had claimed that 
he was able to drink of his Master's cup, and be 
baptized with His baptism, not knowing what it 
meant, had shared with Peter in suffering impris- 
onment and the scourge. They had departed from 
the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were 
counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. 

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, had died a 
cruel death, for the testimony of Jesus. And now 
the persecution had become general. A deter- 
mined effort was made by those who had crucified 
the Lord to violently destroy His followers, and 
blot out that new way which they called heresy. 

Then already, as ever after, "the blood of the 
martyrs was the seed of the Church. ' ' The Church 
multiplied rapidly in Jerusalem. The disciples 
8 (i53) 



154 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

also were forcibly scattered abroad in the regions 
round about. Wherever they went, they preached 
that same Jesus. 

Philip, one of the seven deacons, who, like 
Stephen, was also an evangelist or public teacher 
authorized and commissioned by the Church to 
preach the Word, had gone to the city of Samaria. 
There he had preached the Word with signal suc- 
cess, and multitudes were gathered into the Church. 
True, the Church had already found that the 
Gospel net would gather in fishes, both bad and 
good, and that while they were sowing the seeds 
of the kingdom, an enemy was sowing tares, even 
among the good wheat. At Jerusalem Ananias and 
Sapphira had come in and had been excommuni- 
cated from above. At Samaria also, Simon the 
sorcerer had been added, on a false and hypocritical 
profession. 

While Philip was doing a great work in Samaria, 
the Lord called him away from that seemingly im- 
portant work, and directed him to go upon a lonely 
road in a desert country. Philip knew neither the 
destination nor object of his mission, yet he was 
not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but followed, 
not knowing whither he went. 

Philip soon found that he was sent to preach 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 1 55 

to an audience of one person. Quite a change 
from the multitudes who crowded to hear him 
in Samaria! Most of us would have said it was 
a serious mistake. But the Lord's ways are not 
our ways. He has a care for the individual. 
He sends His messengers after one soul. The 
ninety and nine must be left for a time, that the 
single wanderer may be sought and found. Would 
that all Gospel ministers and indeed all Christian 
priests or believers would recognize the opportuni- 
ties and missions He gives them to preach Jesus to 
the individual ! Then would the masses soon be 
reached. 

Let us look at that individual for whom Philip 
must give up his great work in Samaria. 

We find that as to race he was one of the de- 
spised of the earth. He was not of the chosen 
race, but by birth a Gentile. To him, therefore, 
did not pertain that birthright in the covenant and 
promises and oracles of God. 

Worse than that, among the Gentiles he belonged 
to the most despised people. He was a descendant 
of the accursed Ham, an African from Ethiopia, a 
negro. 

As to position, we do indeed find him among 
the great ones of the earth. He was treasurer of a 



156 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

great kingdom. He held the purse-strings of an 
empire, and had the dispensing of its silver and 
gold. In the eyes of men, his office would make 
him great and honored, in spite of his race. We 
will now consider the conversion of this Ethiopian. 

As we find him already, to some extent, under 
the divine guidance, we naturally inquire first: 
What had the Grace that bringeth salvation already 
done for him ? 

We find that it had brought to him a knowledge 
of the true God. As we find him, he is not, like 
most of his countrymen, an idolater. He has 
learned to regard Jehovah, the God of Israel, as 
the only true God. This knowledge had probably 
been brought to him by some of the Jews, of whom 
there was quite a colony in Ethiopia at that time. 

In accepting Israel's God as the only true Lord 
of Heaven and earth, he had to submit, as a matter 
of course, to the rite of circumcision. This made 
him a proselyte, and entitled him to a right to par- 
ticipate in the worship of the temple at Jerusalem. 

We, therefore, find him an attendant of the great 
Feasts. We meet him on the way returning from 
Jerusalem, whither he had gone to worship. He 
had made the long journey from his own land in 
order to participate in the solemnities and festivities 
of Pentecost. 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 157 

He had tarried in Jerusalem for several weeks 
after trie Feast, and is now leisurely returning 
home. The fact that he was permitted to thus 
absent himself for so long a time, shows that he 
had the perfect confidence of his queen and her 
advisers. We, therefore, infer that he was, what 
Nathaniel was before he found Jesus, K<k An Israelite 
in whom there was no guile." 

It was now only about two months since the last 
eventful Passover. The memory of the tragic 
scenes of the crucifixion, and the stories of the 
resurrection, were still fresh in people's minds. The 
whole city had again been moved by the exciting 
scenes of Pentecost. Thousands of followers and 
believers had been added to the young Church. So 
confident and steadfast was the faith of these new 
converts that neither the dungeon, nor the whip- 
ping post, nor the prospect of death by stoning, 
could shake it or prevent its confession and promul- 
gation. 

All this the Ethiopian must have seen and heard 
at Jerusalem. In a devout and honest heart like 
his, all this would certainly awaken inquiries and 
longings for more light. This drove him to the 
Scriptures, and made him search anew the oracles 
of God. And thus we find that he was under the 



158 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS, 

divine tuition. He was partially enlightened. He 
needed and was seeking further light. Prevenient 
Grace, the Grace that goes before and prepares the 
way for conversion, was at work in him. 

We notice secondly how he was brought to the 
full light and life. 

We find him reading the Scriptures. When he 
wanted more light and longed for more satisfaction, 
he did not try to satisfy himself by an effort of 
reason. He did not try to solve his perplexities 
with his own understanding. Neither did he say 
that he would wait until his return home, and then 
he would ask the philosophers and wise men of his 
own nation. It was not with any human light that 
he sought to dispel the darkness of his mind, nor 
with any earthly good that he endeavored to satisfy 
the longings of his heart. He went directly to the 
Word of God, believing that the entrance of that 
W070I giveth light, that it is a lamp unto the feet 
and a light unto one's path. Looking up to the 
Author of that Word, his heart said, "In thy light 
shall we see light. ' ' 

He wanted the light of life. He went to the 
fountain of life. He found it in the book of life. 
These wonderful words of life were unto him spirit 
and life. Thus do we find this enquirer searching 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 159 

the Scriptures that in them he might find that eter- 
nal life which he craved. 

We get a better idea of his eagerness and earnest- 
ness when we remember how inconvenient it was 
to read at that time. He was riding over a desert 
road, under the heat and glare of a Syrian sun. 
He was not riding in a palace car, but jolted along 
in one of the rude chariots of those days. Books 
and printing were not known. There were none 
of those handy editions of the Bible, nor vest- 
pocket Testaments. This man had to carry with 
him a heavy scroll of parchment, and this un- 
wieldy roll of finely written manuscript he was 
trying to read as the chariot rumbled along. Truly 
he was interested. He could say, u I have desired 
the words of thy mouth more than my necessary 
food." ''''More to be desired are they than gold ; 
yea, than much fine gold ; sweeter also than honey 
and the honey- comb.'''' He was seeking and finding 
light and life in the Word of God. 

Further, we find this man gladly availing him- 
self of the assistance of an evangelist. He did not 
belong to the class of those who are so wise in 
their own conceits that they imagine that they 
neither need nor could get assistance from others. 
Such are those people who say they need no minis- 



l6o NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

ters of the Gospel. They need not go to Church. 
They can just as well, or far better, read the Bible 
for themselves. They do not stop to inquire who 
instituted the office of the ministry. They do not 
try to inform themselves as to its origin, nature, 
necessity. Strange, that with all their professed 
Bible reading and Bible reverence, they have not 
found the ministry in it! Strange, indeed, that 
they could read the Bible without discovering that 
it is God's own ordainment that there should ever 
be these living teachers and " preachers, because 
man needs the help of his fellow-man: and that 
the Lord, the great Head of the Church, has so ar- 
ranged and ordered that His saving Grace, coming 
through the Word, should be brought to man by 
man. It is certainly clearly taught that God or- 
dained the Old Testament priesthood, and that 
Christ appointed the New Testament ministry, 
and that, through the Church, which is His bride, 
He still calls and sends these preachers and dispen- 
sers of His written and .sacramental Word. 

So the eunuch believed. He humbly confessed 
that he could not understand all he read without 
some one to assist him. Finding one whom he be- 
lieved to be a regular and true expounder of that 
Word, he appeals to him for instruction and light. 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. l6l 

And Philip opened his mouth and began at the 
same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus. And 
thus did the living ministry expound and apply to 
him the living Word. The eunuch was preached 
to. 

It is important to notice also the character of the 
preaching. It was true Gospel preaching. Not 
every one who calls himself a minister or an evan- 
gelist is such indeed and in truth. There always 
have been false prophets, blind leaders, and wolves 
in sheep* s clothing. They have come without be- 
ing called of the Lord, they run without being 
sent. 

Not all that is called Gospel preaching is such in 
reality. There be many who preach aitother gos- 
pel, which is not another, i. e., it is no gospel at 
all. Oh how many preach themselves ! They stand 
before a congregation of poor, lost, and ruined sin- 
ners. Week after week they appear before them to 
display their own wisdom, to parade their own 
abilities, to magnify their own persons! How many 
preach as pleasing men! Their constant effort is 
to entertain, to natter, to gratify the tastes and de- 
sires of the natural man! How much of the 
preaching of the present day is a magnifying of 

the innate powers and capabilities of man. An 
8* 



1 62 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

appeal to the pride and dignity of manhood, an 
effort to get man to lay aside vice because it is un- 
becoming to such a noble and gifted creature. 
Alan's ?nanhood is to shame him out of sin. Man's 
pride is to make him desire to be a son of God. 
Man's noble endowments axe. to be so developed that 
by his own strength and reason he shall be as God! 

It was well for the eunuch that he did not meet 
some popular nineteenth-century preacher or evan- 
gelist! 

Philip preached unto him Jesus. In this he 
showed himself to be a true evangelist. This is 
the substance of all true Gospel preaching. One 
greater than Philip had said, when urging the 
searching of the Scriptures, " for they are they that 
testify of me." When preaching to a congregation 
of two, on the way to Emraaus, He began " with 
Moses and all the prophets, and expounded unto 
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning 
Himself'' Jesus was the burden of every Old 
Testament prayer, the hope of every patriarch 
and saint, the inspiration of every psalm, the 
aim of every sacrifice, the goal of every prophecy. 
Jesus is the very heart and life of the whole New 
Testament. Jesus was the great central theme, the 
sum and substance of all apostolic preaching and 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 163 

writing. Philip had a good text. He had a large 
subject. He had a theme that cannot be exhausted 
in one sermon, nor in the sermons of one lifetime, 
nor of all ages. It will take eternity to know and 
tell it all ! 

In preaching Jesus to this Ethiopian, Philip 
would naturally teach him the Bible doctrine of 
His person and His two-fold nature. He would 
unfold to him the great work or mission of Jesus, 
His life of obedience, the positive righteousness 
thereby wrought out — not for Himself, for He 
needed it not, but for those who were destitute of 
a righteousness that could stand before God. He 
would instruct him of the passive or suffering 
obedience of Jesus, even His obedience unto death, 
or His atonement. 

Then he could not help explaining further what 
made all this great work of the God-man necessary. 
He would have to speak of sin, of its damnable 
nature and the necessity of punishment, and how 
that the work of Jesus was an' expiation for man's 
sin, and that in it all He was the sinner's substi- 
tute. He would show that thus justice was satis- 
fied, and redemption and salvation purchased for 
every sinner. 

Again, it would be necessary to teach the Ethio- 



164 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

pian how this Jesus had sent the Holy Spirit, and 
how that Spirit applies and brings home to the in- 
dividual heart and life that redemption. He would 
show how that Spirit comes and operates through 
the Word and Sacraments, and how that Jesus had 
founded a Church in and by which the Word 
was to be preached and the two sacraments, Bap- 
tism and the Lord's Supper, administered. Thus 
would it be necessary for Philip in preaching Jesus 
to expound the way of salvation through Him, and 
the application of salvation, by His Spirit, through 
His Word and Sacraments. 

That Philip did this becomes quite evident from 
the eunuch's request to be baptized. Whether the 
verse containing Philip's question and the Ethio- 
pian's answer be genuine or not, even without it 
we find the clearest evidence of his faith. It was 
indeed because he believed so heartily in this Jesus 
Christ, that he believed confidently in all the words 
and institutions of Jesus. Such faith in Christ 
cannot make light of any of Christ's ordinances. 
Whether reason can see anything in the ordi- 
nance or not, faith believes that everything that 
comes from the hands of the Blessed One must, 
on that account, have blessing in it. Because the 
eunuch believed in Christ, therefore he believed in 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 165 

Christ's baptism and wanted it applied to himself. 
It was not hard for him to believe ' ' in one baptism 
for the remission of sins," and that "it worketh 
forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the 
devil, and confers everlasting life and salvation on 
all who believe as the Word and promise of God 
declare." Believing in Christ, it was not hard to 
believe all that His Word says of the blessings and 
benefits of His sacrament. He wanted to be and 
was baptized. He wanted to have a place in 
Christ's Church. 

Who will doubt his conversion ? While there is 
not much said of his penitence or sorrow for sin, 
this is natural, because, as we saw above, he had 
been for a long time under the divine tuition. His 
faith, however, shines out brightly and clearly. 
Therefore, ' ' being justified by faith, he had peace 
with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. ' ' 

He went on his way rejoicing. He had found 
the pearl of great price, in comparison to which 
the treasures of Ethiopia were as nothing. He had 
found the forgiveness of sin and adoption into the 
family of God. He- had found Christ in the Scrip- 
tures, and thus had the key to their interpretation. 

This converted Ethiopian on his return to his 
native land would naturally tell what the Lord had 



1 66 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

done for his soul. He would naturally want to 
teach transgressors God's ways, that sinners might 
be converted unto Him. 

Whether the early traditions that tell us of his 
turning evangelist and missionating among his 
countrymen are true or not, whether he did baptize 
his queen and establish the Church in that land or 
not, we cannot positively affirm. 

But we do know that in the early centuries the 
Church seemed to find a ready footing and great 
prosperity in the north of Africa. And between 
that fact and the Ethiopian eunuch's conversion 
there may be a closer connection than we can 
trace. And if this be so, we need no longer wonder 
why the Lord directed Philip to leave his work in 
Samaria, to follow and evangelize one soul. 

Who knows what results may follow the preach- 
iag of Jesus to a fellow-traveler, a companion^ a 
neighbor, a fellow-workman, or an individual any- 
where ? 

Let every Gospel minister and every member of 
the priesthood of believers do the work of an evan- 
gelist by preaching Jesus to the individual, when- 
ever God gives the opportunity. 



SERMON XI. 



THE CONVERSION OF PAUL 

Acts ix. 1-9, and 17, 18. 



Acts ix. i-g, and 17, 18. And Saul yet breathing out threat- 
enings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went 
unto the high priest, 

And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, 
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or 
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. 

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus : and suddenly 
there shined round about him a light from heaven. 

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him : 
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? 

And he said, Who art thou, Lord ? And the Lord said, I am 
Jesus whom thou persecutest ; it is hard for thee to kick against 
the pricks. 

And he, trembling and astonished, said: Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do ? And the Lord said unto him : Arise and 
go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. 

And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, 
hearing a voice, but seeing no man. 

And Saul arose from the earth ; and when his eyes were 
opened, he saw no man : but they led him by the hand, and 
brought him into Damascus. 

And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor 
drink 

And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house ; and 
putting his hands on him said : Brother Saul, the Lord, even 
Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath 
sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled 
with the Holy Ghost. 

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been 
scales : and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was 
baptized. 

(Compare chapter xxii. 6-17, and xxvi. 13-16.) 



SERMON XL 

IT has been claimed that since the coming of 
Christ and the inauguration of the New Testament 
dispensation there has not been an individual con- 
version of such transcendant importance to the 
Church of Jesus Christ as the conversion of the 
apostle Paul. This claim may at first thought 
seem extravagant, but the more we study the life 
and character and achievements of that greatest of 
the apostles, the more are we inclined to accept the 
claim as sober truth. 

Consider for a moment what kind of a man he 
was. He was endowed with one of the greatest 
and brightest of intellects. He had the advantage 
of a thorough and liberal education. He had been 
trained by the most reputable teachers, in the best 
of schools. His learning covered not only all the 
wisdom of the Hebrews, but it embraced also a 
thorough knowledge of the histories, the philoso- 
phies, the literature, and the mythology of the an- 
cients of renown. As a scholar he probably had 
few peers and no superiors among his contempor- 
aries. 

(169) 



170 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

He was a clear thinker, a strong reasoner, a 
powerful logician. Along with his bright intellect, 
he was possessed of a strong will, an indomitable 
purpose, a dauntless courage. With all this he had 
a scrupulous conscience and a tender heart. 

Think of his former life and religious training. 
Brought up from childhood according to the tenets 
of ' ' the straitest sect of the Jews, a Hebrew of the 
Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, as touching 
the law blameless." 

With all the ardor and enthusiasm of his young 
nature, he had embraced what his famous teachers 
taught him as the old orthodox faith of the cove- 
nant people. He had become a thorough legalist 
and a firm believer in the coming of a world-con- 
quering Messiah. All his associations, training 
and education had thus confirmed him more and 
more in what he considered as the faith of the 
fathers. 

Now this educated and zealous man is brought 
face to face with the new way. He hears the 
preaching of the Galilean fishermen. They teach 
that one Jesus of Nazareth, a son of an obscure 
carpenter, whose pretensions had been rejected and 
condemned by chief priests, elders, scribes and 
Pharisees, who had died the disgraceful death of 



CONVERSION OE PAUL. 171 

a malefactor, hanged between two thieves — that this 
was the Messiah, the Redeemer of the world! He 
is told that his own righteousness, which is of the 
law, and in which he prides himself so much, can- 
not save him ; that he must repent as a poor sinner, 
and put his whole trust in the crucified Messiah. 

No wonder that his whole being rises up in re- 
volt at such doctrines and their teachers. He sees 
that the acceptance of this new faith means the 
overthrow of that colossal system of legalism and 
Messianic hope built up during centuries by Tal- 
mudists, Rabbis, Scribes and Pharisees. He 
eagerly disputes in the synagogues with Stephen 
and the other defenders of the new faith. He 
makes up his mind that this awful, revolutionizing 
heresy, this treason to Jehovah's covenant, must be 
exterminated root and branch. He becomes a 
leader in the persecution, takes part in the murder 
of Stephen, gives his voice or vote in the council 
against every believer in Jesus, lays hold of men 
and women, endeavors to compel them to blas- 
pheme, and puts to death all persistent disciples. 
When through with his searching and torturing at 
Jerusalem, he starts to Damascus to carry on the 
same cruel work there. But before he gets there 
he becomes a believer in Jesus of Nazareth. He 



172 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

afterwards becomes the greatest of all the apostles, 
the most intrepid and invincible defender of the 
faith he once persecuted. Himself becomes the 
most persecuted man living. He endures such 
hardships, privations, tortures and torments, that 
his whole after life is a continuous martyrdom 
till it ends in a martyr's death. Surely such a 
man, from such a life, to such a life, could not have 
been converted by a delusion, to a delusion! No, 
to believe that would require far more credulity 
than to believe that he was converted by Him who 
is the Truth, to His own truth. 

It is his conversion that we now desire to exam- 
ine. Many false and dangerous errors have been 
drawn from and connected with this conversion. 
May the Spirit of truth lead us to know and accept 
His own truth. 

We inquire first: What likely prepared the way 
for that conversion ? 

Whether Paul had ever been in Jerusalem when 
Jesus was in that city, we know not. But we do 
know that he was there a few years after the cruci- 
fixion, when the young Church was making such 
progress as to alarm the custodians and defenders 
of the old faith. He was there when there was 
that general interest and commotion caused by the 



CONVERSION OF PAUL. 1 73 

preaching of the apostles and deacons. Paul must 
have heard some of that preaching and public 
reasoning in the synagogues. 

It is also more than likely that he was one of 
those Cilicians who openly disputed or debated with 
the fiery and convincing Stephen. Unable to re- 
sist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke, 
they became wroth, and determined on physical 
force to put down the heresy. Paul, in the mean- 
time, must have pondered and studied these new 
and wonderful truths. From the sincere and in- 
quiring nature of the man, we believe that these 
wonderful words of life made him think, question, 
and feel. As long as he was unconvinced, he be- 
came the more hostile. 

Stephen was dragged before the council, and 
made that masterly defense of his. Paul heard 
every word. It could not fail of an impression. 
It has been noticed how that, on more than one 
occasion, in his reasoning with the Jews, in later 
years, he adopted the same line of argument that 
Stephen used. He never lost that speech. No 
doubt it carried prevenient or preparatory Grace. 

Then, again, as Paul listened to Stephen's con- 
vincing words, he also saw his face as it had been 
the face of an angel. With that look, reflecting 



174 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the glory of heaven, he claimed, in Paul's hearing: 
" Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of 
Man standing on the right hand of God. ' ' 

Paul heard that prayer for the murderers, and that 
peaceful commitment of his spirit to the Lord Jesus. 

With what feelings must not Paul have gone 
from that martyrdom! What a tumult must have 
raged in his breast! What conflicting thoughts 
and emotions must have stirred within! But he is 
not yet convinced. It is no trifle for a sincere, 
investigating, well-fortified, and perfectly satisfied 
spirit to throw off the convictions of a lifetime. 
Paul would likely blame his rising questions, 
doubts, and strange feelings on some unseen 
tempter. He would try to shake them off. He 
would drown them in redoubled zeal for the old 
faith. He would be more eager than ever to put 
down that new heresy, so subtle and dangerous as 
even to threaten to unsettle him! As long as he 
can find heretics, he keeps his head and hands full 
in Jerusalem. By and by he is through there. He 
cannot be idle. He must keep himself busy to 
keep down these troublous thoughts and feelings. 
Armed with the proper credentials, he starts for 
Damascus, to carry on the same awful, absorbing 
work there. 



CONVERSION OF PAUL. 1 75 

But Damascus is over one hundred and fifty 
miles away. It will take almost a week to make 
the journey. The route is over historic ground. 
The scenes along the way recall scenes and associ- 
ations of great interest to the devout Jew. Along 
this way the impetuous and unsettled Paul must 
journey. He has nothing now to absorb his en- 
ergy and attention. He is alone with himself. He 
has time to think. And such a man cannot dream 
away the time. He must think. The road would 
remind him of the covenant people and the cov- 
enant words. From these his mind would again 
revert to the new interpretation of those covenant 
deeds and words. Again and again he would re- 
call the wonderful and elevating power of those 
new interpretations. Again and again the question 
would come, Is not the new interpretation more 
consistent and more true to the history and spirit 
of the covenant than the old? And then again 
would he feel the tortures of doubt and the inde- 
finable longings after peace, and would send up a 
prayer to Abraham's God for light. And thus were 
those six quiet days, days of Grace and preparation. 
The Spirit of God was working through the Word 
and preparing the way for the Lord. The hammer 
was falling. The fire was burning. The light was 



176 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

shining. The seed was rooting; and Paul was in 
the way to conversion. 

We therefore notice secondly, what brought that 
conversion to pass? 

Paul and his attendants were nearing the city, 
11 And suddenly there shined around about him a 
light from heaven." But it was not that light that 
converted him — it was only a symbol of another 
light that he needed, and that was about to be 
vouchsafed unto him. 

In that light there appeared a form, and from 
that form there came a voice saying unto him, Saul, 
Saul, why persecutes t thou me? It was Jesus re- 
vealing Himself and making Himself known 
through His own Word, and this brought about 
Paul's conversion. 

Notice the manner of this revealing of Himself 
by Christ. He first calls him. He calls him by 
name. It is Christ coming first to Paul, and not 
Paul first turning to Christ. It is the shepherd 
seeking the sheep, and not the sheep the shepherd. 
Yes, God always comes first to us. The first step 
is from heaven to earth after the sinner, and not 
from earth towards heaven after God. That call 
is the call of seeking Grace. It is the call of yearn- 
ing love. It is a repetition of that first call, 



CONVERSION OF PAUL. 177 

ii Adam ) where art thou?" It is the call that 
sounds so frequently in the ears of all of Adam's 
children. 

Notice further how the Lord enlightens Paul. 
He shows him his sin. Thou persecutest Me.. 
This is the awful character of sin. This is its. 
damnable nature. It is opposition to Christ. It 
is rebellion against heaven. It is fighting against 
God. This is indeed the essence of all sin. Here- 
in lies its fearful guilt. And this is what the 
sinner needs to know, and to know this he needs 
the light of God's Word. 

The word of Christ shows Paul not only the 
guilt of his sin, but also its folly. It is a kicking 
against the pricks. As the stubborn ox only hurts 
himself by kicking against the sharp goad of the 
driver, so the sinner is only hurting himself. This 
is the folly of all sin. Even when it seems to give 
momentary satisfaction, it really brings sores and 
pains. It is a kicking into the sharp goad of Satan, 
the cruel driver. 

The Lord further shows Paul the fearful danger 
of sin. As fighting against Jesus, to whom all 
Power is given both in heaven and on earth, it is a 
hopeless battle. The sinner must miserably fail 
in the end. He will be utterly vanquished. He is 



178 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

only provoking the wrath of the Lamb, and laying 
up for himself ivrath against the day of wrath. 

Thus is Paul enlightened by the Divine Word. 
He is taught to see and understand what his sin is. 
Its nature, its guilt, its folly and its danger, are 
all shown him. 

On the other hand, he is taught to know that 
there is One who loves him, who calls him, who is 
seeking to save him. 

Now all this revelation of Christ is intended and 
calculated to awaken in Paul true penitence, a 
knowledge of sin, a sense of his guilt, and a long- 
ing for deliverance. And this is the first part of 
conversion. 

Christ's interest and call is also intended and 
suited to beget faith in Paul. It is calculated to 
draw him to that compassionate Seeker, and to 
enable him to cast himself on His mercy. Faith 
is to come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of 
God. But faith is the second part of conversion. 

That such was the result with Paul we can 
plainly see from his conduct. Paul fell to the 
earth; but that fall was not conversion, it was only 
a symbol of that coming down of his sinful pride, 
self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. 

We find that the prostrate and humbled Paul 



CONVERSION OF PAUL. 179 

first inquires for more light. "Who art thou, 
Lord?" Paul has become an inquirer. He wants 
to be certain first of all with whom he has to do. 
It is a blessed token of a work of Grace when the 
sinner begins seriously to inquire about Christ and 
divine things, when he goes to his Bible to find 
out who this Lord is and what he desires of him, 
and what he himself is over against this Lord. 
Paul further asks: "What wilt thou have me to 
do?" It is a further cry for light and instruction. 

But this question is also more than that. It con- 
tains an acknowledgment of sin. What wilt thou 
have me to do? As much as to say : " I have been 
following my own way. I have been doing my own 
works. My way, I now see, is all wrong. It is the 
way of Cain, the way of death. My works have 
been works of darkness and crime against my 
Lord. I acknowledge my transgression. I hate 
my sin. I abhor myself." Such we believe were 
the penitent feelings of the contrite heart of Paul. 

This question of Paul also contains a confession 
of faith in Christ. "I acknowledge Thee to be my 
Lord, only do Thou direct ; I will trust Thee ; I will 
put myself in Thy hands ; I will follow Thee. No 
longer will I consult my own inclination or my 
own reason. Thou shalt direct and Thou wilt 



l80 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

save." And thus the turning point was made. 
Paul was a converted man. But he was by no 
means a full-grown man in Christ Jesus. He was 
but just a babe in Christ — a feeble beginner of 
the Christian life. We notice, therefore, thirdly: 

The further leadings of Divine Grace towards 
the fuller light of assurance and the higher calling 
of apostleship. 

Paul was blind. That light above the noon-day 
brightness of the Syrian sun . had temporarily 
darkened his eyes. He was led by the hand into 
the city. For three days he sat in the gloom and 
saw no man. This doubtless was to further teach 
him how dark his way had been without the Light 
of the world. During these days he did neither eat 
nor drink. He was as one who had been hanging 
over a fearful gulf, and was suddenly rescued by a 
heavenly hand. He could not help but review the 
past, reflect on his awful course, lament over his 
fearful sins, shudder at the frightful danger that he 
had been inviting, and cry again and again for 
mercy, even after he had obtained mercy. The 
only account we have of the occupation of these 
momentous days is, " behold, he prayeth. " What 
pleading and wrestling that must have been! 
Then he was further instructed by one commis- 



CONVERSION OF PAUL. l8l 

sioned to be a spiritual guide. From Ananias he 
learned the way of God more plainly. He brought 
to that broken and contrite heart the heavenly 
light, and life, and comfort of the divine Word. 
As a new-born babe he desired and received the 
sincere milk of the Word, that he might grow 
thereby. Ananias also instructed him to receive 
the Sacramental Word, that "washing of regener- 
ation and renewing of the Holy Ghost" which 
" doth also now save us." "And now why tarriest 
thou ? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy 
sins, calling on the name of the Lord." 

And thus, by the Word, as he had studied it be- 
fore his conversion, as he had heard it from 
Stephen, as he heard it from Christ and from 
Ananias, as he received it in connection with the 
baptismal water, was Paul led out into the blessed 
light of acceptance, into the family of the re- 
deemed, and the full assurance of forgiveness and 
inheritance among the saints in light. 

It is a general opinion that Paul at once, as soon 
as he was baptized, entered upon his public minis- 
try. If we had no other account of his conversion 
and mission than the Acts of the Apostles, then 
such would be our natural conviction. But Paul 
gives us many details in his letters, which are not 



l82 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

mentioned in the Acts. In the first chapter of 
Galatians, after speaking of his former life and 
how it pleased God to call him and reveal His Son 
in him, he says, "Immediately I conferred not with 
flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to 
them which were apostles before me; but I went into 
Arabia, and returned agai?i to Damascus." 

Comparing this statement with the account in 
Acts, it seems that, after his baptism, Paul spoke 
a few times in the synagogue of Damascus, thus 
professing publicly his new faith, and that then he 
retired to Arabia, where he was alone with his 
Lord, in training for his great work for a part of 
three years. Thus, like Moses in Midian, and 
afterwards in the mount, like Elijah in the desert, 
and Christ in the wilderness, like Luther in the 
monastery, and afterwards in the Wartburg, Paul 
was first schooled and prepared for his arduous 
mission. Only after that did he enter fully on his 
apostolic labors. 

In closing, let us still notice briefly what was ex- 
traordinary and miraculous about this conversion, 
and what was ordinary. The extraordinary feat- 
ures were the blinding flash of light, the vision of 
the glorified Christ, and His audible personal 
address to Paul, as also his prostration and blind- 



CONVERSION OF PAUL. 1 83 

ness. These extraordinary manifestations and ex- 
periences need not be expected to be repeated. To 
wait and hope for such things, is to expect that for 
which there is neither ground nor promise. They 
were clearly exceptional, and no one has a right to 
look for their repetition. Whoever puts off his 
conversion in hope of some such manifestations, 
will probably die unconverted. Neither were these 
extraordinary features the real agencies of Paul's 
conversion. They were only the incidental and 
attending circumstances. The real means of the 
conversion were its ordinary features. 

These were, on God's part, the Word. Through 
it Christ revealed Himself and His seeking Grace. 
Through it He convinced Paul of his sin. Through 
the spoken and sacramental Word brought by 
Ananias, Paul received and was assured of the for- 
giveness of sin. 

On the part of Paul the ordinary experiences, as 
a result of the operation of the Word, were the 
sense of sin or penitence and faith. 

Such are the ordinary means of Grace, and such 
Grace comes still through such means, and such 
converting power they still carry. These are the 
ordinary features of Paul's conversion. They are 
its vital and essential elements. They are repeated 



184 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

with varied experiences and phenomena in all 
conversions. They can be had by every sinner. 
They are herewith offered to every unconverted 
reader of these pages. 



SERMON XII. 



THE CONVERSION OF CORNELIUS. 

Acts x. i-6. 



Acts x. 1-6. There was a certain man of Cesarea called Cor- 
nelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. 

A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, 
which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always. 

He saw in a vision, evidently about the ninth hour of the 
day, an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, 
Cornelius. 

Aud when he looked on him he was afraid, and said : What 
is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine 
alms are come up for a memorial before God. 

And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose 
surname is Peter : 

He lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the 
sea-side : he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. 



SERMON XII. 

The very interesting chapter from which our 
text is taken, records the conversion and reception 
into the Christian Church of the first Gentiles. No 
doubt there had been Gentile converts received 
into the Apostolic Church before Cornelius. But 
they had all become converts to Judaism first. 
They had come into the Christian Church through 
the door of the Jewish. They had first submitted 
to circumcision and all the ceremonial require- 
ments of the Law of Moses. Thus they had be- 
come proselytes of righteousness and worshippers 
in the temple of Jerusalem. 

Cornelius and his household were uncircumcised, 
and were not attendants on the temple services. 
Without these hitherto essential requirements, they 
were admitted to full membership in the infant 
Church. This was the turning of a new leaf in 
the Church's experience and polity. It was a rad- 
ically new departure, an epoch of the most vital 
and far-reaching consequences. 

It is interesting to notice the characters that fig- 
ure in this most important transaction. 

The apostle who was commissioned to bring 
(187) 



1 88 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

about the conversion and admittance into the 
Church of these first Gentiles was Peter. 

Now, as far as we know, there was scarcely 
another apostle so intensely devoted to the tradi- 
tions 'and ceremonies of the Fathers as he. It re- 
quired a vision, thrice repeated, a special message 
from heaven, and a plain and distinct commission 
from the Spirit, to remove his prejudices and doubts 
and make him willing to go to Cornelius. 

It is also of interest to study the history and 
character of the first Gentile convert. This will 
appear as we now consider more particularly the 
conversion of Cornelius. 

We notice first : His unfavorable surroundings. 

It is said that man is a creature of circumstances. 
Much is said and written of the potent influence 
of environment. And while environment is wrongly 
made the excuse for many sins of omission and of 
commission, yet we must admit that it is a factor 
in the shaping of life and character. 

Some persons are so situated that it is almost a 
matter of course that they should take an interest 
in religion. Others, however, are so circumstanced 
that everything seems to be against their taking an 
interest in spiritual things. 

Not that we believe these things a valid excuse 



CONVERSION OF CORNELIUS. 189 

for the neglect of salvation. Where there is the 
proper earnestness and interest one can find Christ 
and be true to Him in any honest and honorable 
calling and amid the most adverse surroundings. 
Joseph maintained his integrity in Potiphar's house 
and at Pharaoh's court. Obadiah remained true 
to his God at the corrupt court of Ahab and Jezebel. 
And Daniel did not defile himself, but devoutly 
worshipped and obeyed his God, even in Babylon. 

Cornelius also was begirt with unfavorable sur- 
roundings. By birth he was a heathen. He had 
no birth-right in Israel, and was not of the chosen 
race. He was born an alien to the covenant, a 
stranger to the commonwealth, and excluded from 
their promises. He belonged to that idolatrous 
nation whose corruption and degradation are so 
vividly portrayed in the first chapter of Romans. 
At the time when godlessness, abomination, and 
crime of every kind had reached their flood-tide in 
the empire, Cornelius held a government office. 
We know to our sorrow that even in Christian 
lands comparatively few government officials pay 
much attention to religion. What then could we 
expect from an officer of the Roman Empire in its 
darkest days ? 

But, worse than that, Cornelius was a soldier, an 



190 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

army officer, centurion, or captain, of the Italian 
band or company. Military life has always been 
looked upon as unfavorable to earnestness in re- 
ligion. Soldiers even in Christian lands are noted 
for God-lessness, looseness of morals and general 
recklessness. The camp, the field, and the march 
seem to have a withering influence on everything 
that is spiritual. Now Cornelius was a captain in 
Caesar's army. Surely his calling and situation were 
not calculated to make him a devout and earnest 
inquirer after the true God and the right worship. 
His environment was against him. From a human 
standpoint he would not be considered a very hope- 
ful subject for conversion. And yet, in spite of all 
this, he was an exceptionally good man. 

Let us notice therefore, secondly, his good char- 
acter. 

He was a strictly honest man. His servants, who 
ought to know him, bring this report to Peter: 
Cornelius is a just man and of good report among 
all the nation of the Jews. The Jews were certainly 
not partial to the Roman soldiers. They were far 
more ready to see the sins than the virtues of these 
their enemies. 

If a Roman centurion therefore had a good re- 
port among the Jews, his character must have been 



CONVERSION OF CORNELIUS. 191 

of exceptional uprightness. In attributing to him 
such a character for honesty, the Jews and the ser- 
vants of Cornelius agree. 

But honesty is not religion. A man can be 
scrupulously just and upright in all his dealings, 
and yet be and remain a stranger to God and His 
Grace. Honesty alone can never save the soul. 
On the other hand, however, let it never be forgot- 
ten, that while honesty is not religion, yet there 
can be no true religion without honesty. There 
never can be saving Grace in the heart and wilful 
dishonesty in the life. A man may talk ever so 
earnestly about his experience, he may pray ever 
so fervently in prayer-meeting, if he does not make 
every effort to pay his honest debts, if he cheats in 
his business transactions, takes advantage of ignor- 
ance, adulterates his goods, gives short weight or 
measure, misrepresents value, or does dishonest 
work, we take no stock in his piety. To be a 
Christian one must be honest, but one can be 
honest and not a Christian. 

Cornelius was also a liberal man. He gave 
much alms to the people. It is a good thing to be 
liberal. To be large-hearted and open-handed is 
certainly no small virtue. But liberality in itself 
is not religion. A person can give liberally and 



192 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

freely to every good cause, even while he has an 
unregenerate heart. There are many who have no 
saving interest in Christ who yet give largely to 
Christ's poor and to Christ's Church. 

Again, however, we must also bear in mind that 
while one can be liberal without being in a state 
of Grace, one cannot be in a state of Grace without 
being ready to communicate. We have no faith in 
a stingy Christian. According to the divine Word 
covetousness is idolatry. He who professes to love 
Christ and is yet unwilling to give to the cause of 
Christ, loves only in word. If it hurts him to give 
instead of giving him joy, if he complains when 
asked to give back a part of what God has just 
lent him, instead of rejoicing that he is able to 
give, there is something seriously wrong with his 
heart. A true conversion reaches the pocket-book 
as well as the heart. Grace enlarges the heart and 
opens the hand. 

So while Cornelius had the virtue of liberality, 
this would not necessarily prove him in a state of 
Grace. But he was, further, a devout man. He 
feared God with all his house, and prayed to God 
always. 

It is possible to be a devout heathen. Those 
who were loyal to the divinities of Rome and their 



CONVERSION OF CORNELIUS. 193 

temples and shrines, those who regularly brought 
their sacrifices and offerings, were devout worship- 
pers of false gods. It was not in this sense that 
Cornelius was devout. He had long since seen the 
folly and sin of recognizing and worshipping the: 
myriad gods of Rome. He had learned to recog- 
nize Jehovah, the God of Israel, as the one andt 
only true God. It was Jehovah that he feared. It. 
was Jehovah that he taught his family and servants 
to fear. It was to Jehovah that he prayed always r 
i. e., habitually and regularly. 

In this also Cornelius was in advance of many 
who profess to be children of God and members of 
the Church of Christ. It is a humiliating fact that 
there are thousands of professing Christians who 
seldom if ever pray. They allow the pastor to do 
the praying for them. They know not what it 
is to bow the knee in the closet and pour out the 
heart and heart-yearnings before God. Much less 
do they pray with their families. Their children 
grow up around them without an example of either 
private or family devotion. And as to praying 
with their servants and encouraging them to pray, 
this would seem to them preposterous. The ser- 
vants are treated as if they had no souls. There 
are no provisions for their spiritual wants. They 



194 N EW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

are almost compelled to live heathen lives in so- 
called Christian families. Cornelius prayed. He 
prayed with his family. He prayed with his ser- 
vants. 

Then he was certainly a child of Grace, a con- 
verted man, a true believer! Was he ? Not nec- 
essarily. It is indeed possible to have a correct 
knowledge of the true God, to offer Him an out- 
ward worship, and even to have regular habits of 
prayer, and yet not be a subject of His saving 
Grace. There is certainly no healthy Christian 
life without prayer. Prayer has been aptly called 
the pulse of the new life. And yet one can have 
the form of prayer without its spirit and life. Not 
that we think the prayers of Cornelius hypocriti- 
cal, engaged in for the express purpose of deceiv- 
ing. Neither were they altogether lifeless and 
formal. But they were not yet the outbreathings 
of a renewed heart. We believe that Cornelius 
was seeking after more light, feeling after God, if 
haply he might find Him, as a wandering child 
finds a loving father, and nestles in his strong arms. 

This leads us to inquire thirdly, What did Cor- 
nelius still want ? 

We know that there are those who contend that 
he was already a true believer, or a converted man. 



CONVERSION OF CORNELIUS. 195 

After a careful study of the whole subject, we are 
persuaded that he was in the way towards conver- 
sion, was being prepared for it by his study of the 
Word, his prayers, and strivings. But the one 
thing needful he had not yet found. 

If Cornelius had been already in the way of sal- 
vation, why was he directed to send for Peter? 
And why did Peter consent to go? The servants 
who came for Peter remained with him a part of a 
day and a whole night. Peter had ample time to 
inquire into the character and attainments of Cor- 
nelius. Why, after hearing such a good report of 
his character, his good works, and his devotion, 
did Peter still consent to go? Why not dismiss 
these servants, with the message to Cornelius that 
he needed no further light or Grace? Evidently 
Peter did not believe that Cornelius was already in 
a state of Grace. 

This becomes still more manifest when we read 
in the fourteenth verse of the eleventh chapter that 
the angel told Cornelius that he "shall tell thee 
words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. ' ' 
If he needed words whereby he should be saved, he 
was not yet in the way of salvation. 

Again, in the eighteenth verse of the same 
chapter, after Peter had rehearsed the whole story 



196 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

to the doubting brethren, we read: "When they 
heard these things they held their peace and glori- 
fied God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles 
granted repentance unto life. ' ' Cornelius therefore 
had still needed that repentance tcnto life. 

It would seem then that he still needed a clear 
idea of the sinfulness of sin, a realizing sense of 
his own guiltiness, his need and helplessness. He 
needed to learn that sin was such a serious, death- 
bringing and damning thing, that his own good 
works and devotions could not render satisfaction 
and make him acceptable in God's sight. True, 
God was well pleased with his searchings and 
strivings and efforts. But all these could not save 
him. He needed a change of heart, a repentance 
unto life. He was too much of a poor, lost and 
condemned creature to bring this about by his own 
strength or reason. He needed "words" to bring 
him to such repentance, and to save him. These 
words were not only to inform him about sin and 
about one mighty to save, but they were to bring 
this Saviour to him, and him to this Saviour. For 
"to Him give all the prophets witness that through 
His name, whosoever believeth i7i Him shall receive 
remission of sin." Cornelius needed to give up all 
confidence in self, and to put his whole trust in a 



CONVERSION OF CORNELIUS. 1 97 

crucified Redeemer. Only after this had taken 
place could it be said that he had passed from death 
unto life. 

We notice finally how this change was brought 
about in Cornelius. 

The change that he needed could be brought 
about '"''not by might nor by power, (i. e., not by 
human might or power,) but by my Spirit, saith the 
Lord.'''' He needed that Spirit to convince him of 
his own sin, of his need of another's righteousness, 
and of ^ judgment to come on all those who are not 
delivered from the prince of this world. In other 
words, he needed the Spirit of God to bring him to 
repentance and to beget faith in him. 

And how did he receive that Spirit? Jesus had 
said, "the words that I speak unto you, they are 
spirit and they are life. ' ' And that this applied not 
only to the words that fell from His own lips, but 
to the preaching of all who would preach His 
Word, becomes clear when we remember how He 
breathed on His apostles, and said, ' ' receive ye the 
Holy Ghost, ' ' and afterwards : ' ''He that heareth you 
heareth me . . and he that despiseth you despiseth 
me." The whole Word of God is therefore called 
an administration of the Spirit, and the sword of 
the Spirit. In the former sermons on the conver- 



198 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

sions of the New Testament, we have seen how the 
Spirit of God every time brought the renewing 
Grace of God through the Word of God. So here 
Peter was to bring words, mere words. And what 
good could words do? By them or through them 
Cornelius was to be saved. Peter brought words; 
He preached, He preached Christ, His coming, 
His office, His work, His death, His resurrection, 
and His return to judgment. He preached the 
necessity of Faith in this Christ, and the certainty 
of the remission of sins through faith in His name. 
These words were spirit and life. They carried 
the Spirit, and therefore this preaching of the 
Gospel was the power of God unto salvation to Cor- 
nelius also. It pleased God by the foolishness of 
preaching to save Cornelius and his household. 

While Peter preached words, the spirit fell visibly 
on those who heard. He does not always come 
thus visibly. He ordinarily comes invisibly but 
effectually through the Word. But this was a 
special case. It was the first coming of the Spirit 
of Pentecost to the uncircumcised. Apostles and 
believing Jews did not believe that the Spirit would 
come upon the uncircu-ncised. In order to fully 
convince Peter, in order to convince the six 
Jewish witnesses who had come from Joppa with 



CONVERSION OF CORNELIUS. 1 99 

Peter, in order to remove every possible doubt from 
the minds of the Gentiles themselves, therefore, 
He came in this instance visibly. Therefore He 
came not as usually through the preached . and 
sacramental Word, which was afterwards adminis- 
tered. It was thus for special reasons that He sep- 
arated Himself on this occasion from the Word 
while it was being preached, and fell in visible 
form. 

We see then how Cornelius was saved by the 
words preached, followed by the sacramental Word 
of baptism. 

But the Word had to be preached. It had to be 
preached by one called of God. This also is God's 
order. It has so pleased Him that His saving 
Word should be brought to man by man. The 
angel might have preached to Cornelius. He 
might have brought to him the words that he 
needed. But this is not God's plan. IftheNine- 
vites are to be warned, Jonah must needs go and 
preach the preaching that he is commanded. If 
Saul of Tarsus asks, "Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do?" the Lord does not tell him, but directs 
him to go and wait for one Ananias. And if Cor- 
nelius sees an angel and asks him: What is it, 
Lord? he is directed to send for Peter. And so it 



200 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

is still. The ministerial office is a divine institu- 
tion. As such it is necessary, but let no man take 
this office unto himself but he that is called, as was 
Aaron. 

And thus was Cornelius converted. 

This whole history is of the most vital import- 
ance to the whole Church of Christ. It teaches 
that one can go quite far in professions, in works, 
and in worship, and still be in an unsaved condi- 
tion. 

If such a good man, and of such good report, 
and honored for his devoutness, if such an one still 
needed conversion, how is it with us? What of 
our hearts? Do we know what penitence is? 
— what trusting, clinging faith in Christ is? Do 
we experimentally know Christ and the fellowship 
of His suffering and the power of His resurreetion? 
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith : 
prove your own selves. 



SERMON XIII. 



The Conversion of Sergius Paulus. 

Acts xiii. 6-12. 



Acts xiii. 6-12. And when they had gone through the isle 
unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a 
Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus: 

Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a 
prudent man ; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to 
hear the word of God. 

But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) 
withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the 
faith. 

Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy 
Ghost, set his eyes on him, 

And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child 
of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not 
cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ? 

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and 
thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And im- 
mediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he 
went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. 

Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, be- 
ing astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. 



SERMON XIII. 

The apostle Paul was just starting on his first 
missionary journey. Of his labors from the time 
of his conversion up to this point, we have only 
the most general account. He had labored some 
in Damascus, in Jerusalem, in his native city of 
Tarsus, and in Antioch. In the latter city he and 
Barnabas had labored for about a year, and gath- 
ered quite a congregation. It was there also that 
the disciples were first called Christians. 

It was not the mission of the great apostle, how- 
ever, to be the settled pastor of a congregation. 
He had been called to the more important and 
difficult work of a traveling missionary. It was to 
be his work to be a pioneer, to go ahead, preach 
the Gospel in places where it had not yet been 
heard, gather congregations and plant Churches in 
these new places. He was not to enter upon other 
men's labors, but was rather to lay foundations for 
others to build on. 

It was while Barnabas and Paul were busy at 
Antioch, and while their work was prospering 
abundantly, that the. Holy Ghost said to the 
(203) 



204 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Church: Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the 
work whereunto I have called them. Departing 
from Antioch they had sailed to the island of 
Cyprus. There they preached first in the city of 
Salamis, and from thence they went to the western 
end of the island, to the city of Paphos. Here also 
they entered vigorously upon their work of preach- 
ing the Gospel. But here, as everywhere, they 
found that the devil had been there ahead of them. 
So it has always been, and so it is to-day. The 
prince of this world gets in his work first. We 
are indeed all born under the dominion of sin and 
Satan. Every human heart, in its natural state, is 
the abode of sin, and where sin is there is Satan 
also. And therefore every city and country and 
clime are more or less under his dark and mysteri- 
ous sway. Wherever missionaries go, at home or 
abroad, into churchless districts or Christless 
homes, they find that the devil has been there be- 
fore them. They find that he will oppose every 
effort they make to bring in the kingdom of God 
and eslablish the right ways of the Lord. The 
prince of darkness had a special and powerful 
emissary in the capital city of Paphos. Through 
his wicked agent he tried, as he always does, to 
bring the governor of the island completely under 



CONVERSION OF SERGIUS PAULUS. 205 

his sway. He is crafty enough to know that if he 
can get a ruler, a king, a mayor, or any one of 
authority and influence, it is a mighty help to his 
cause. 

The two missionaries had to meet him. It came 
to an open contest. The result was the conversion 
of Sergius Paulus, the first prominent conversion 
under Paul of which we have any account. We 
consider this a very important conversion. Some 
conversions are more important than others. Not 
that one soul is of more value in God's sight than 
another. He is no respecter of persons. In his 
sight the soul of Sergius Paulus, the governor of 
Cyprus, is of no more value than the soul of one of 
his slaves. Both are equally the purchase of the 
precious blood of Christ. Still, the conversion of 
Paulus is of greater importance and of greater 
value to the Church, because of his position, his 
authority and influence. He could do more for 
the young Church and new faith than one of his 
slaves, and therefore we consider his an important 
conversion. 

In studying this conversion, we inquire first into 
the history, character and position of the man. 

Sergius Paulus was a Roman, and therefore a 
heathen. He had been bred and brought up in 



2o6 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the state religion of the Roman empire. That re- 
ligion was at that time the most vile, corrupt, and 
criminal heathenism on the face of the earth. We 
have a graphic picture of it in the first chapter of 
Romans. Sergius Paulus had, from childhood 
up, drunk in its abominations and criminalities. 
Surely all this was against him. 

But, notwithstanding all this, we read that he 
was a prudent man. He was a thoughtful man, 
given to sober investigation and clear discernment. 
This is all the more to his credit, when we recall 
the fact that, in those dissolute times, there were 
few men who were prudent thinkers. It was a 
time when most Romans of means and leisure were 
wholly given up to the indulgence of the lusts of 
the flesh. To revel in dissipation, debauchery and 
vice was the chief occupation of Roman citizens. 
This was especially true of government officials. 
Their position seemed to entitle them to rioting 
and drunkenness, and chambering and wantonness. 
And to these they gave their attention, their money 
and their time. 

Sergius Paulus was Proconsul, or governor of 
Cyprus. As a quiet and peaceful province, this 
island was under the control and patronage of the 
Senate. As such it required very little governing, 



CONVERSION OF SERGIUS PAULUS. 207 

and the office of Sergius was without much care or 
responsibility. It would have been the most nat- 
ural thing therefore for him to while away the 
tedium of his monotonous life by headlong indul- 
gence of the flesh. Add to this the fact that the 
capital city Paphos was the reputed birthplace of 
the goddess Venus, and that her impure worship 
flourished abundantly there. Consider the influ- 
ence on public life and morals which that most 
unchaste of all idolatries would have. Then re- 
member that to all this temptation Sergius Paulus 
was exposed. And still he remained a prudent 
man. This speaks much for his intelligent and 
moral character. 

Such was Sergius Paulus, the governor of 
Cyprus. 

Let us notice secondly his deeper longings. 

He evidently believed in the higher powers of an 
unseen realm. He was convinced of the existence 
of beings and influences beyond and above the 
regions of sense. He had faith in the supernatural. 
As a serious, reflecting and candid man, he felt 
that this earth is not the only abode of man, 
and this life is not the whole of existence. He 
realized that man is related to two worlds. No 
doubt his conceptions were very vague, and his 



208 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

ideas very crude. How could it be otherwise, when 
his only guides were nature, conscience and the 
ignorant pretenders of a degraded religion? The 
belief in the unseen powers of an unseen world is 
inborn with man. He can only rid himself of it 
by a positive and persistent effort of his will. In- 
deed, it is doubtful whether man ever really gets 
rid of this innate conviction. It is more than 
likely that all thoughtful skeptics are like that one 
in Ohio, who said: "I do not believe in a here- 
after, and yet I would give my best yoke of oxen 
if I were sure that there is none. ' ' The conviction 
is too deep-seated to be easily got rid of, and how- 
ever individuals may here and there try to become 
atheists, the mass of mankind must always believe 
in some kind of a god, and in some kind of a relig- 
ion. So it was with Sergius Patilus. He had no 
doubt accepted the religion of the Empire in his 
earlier days, but he had become disgusted with 
and discarded it. It had degenerated into such 
open and public fraud and knavery, that its own 
priests scarcely believed in it. Cicero tells us that 
in his day two priests, while ministering together 
in the temples of the gods, could not look each 
other in the face without laughing. 

But Sergius Paulus was not ready to throw away 



CONVERSION OF SERGIUS PAULUS. 209 

all religion. He felt that somewhere there must 
be a true religion; one that could satisfy the crav- 
ings of the heart. Would that all who have been 
deluded by the vagaries of man, as if these were 
the revelation of God, would thus seek for the 
truth until they find it, and the peace which it 
alone can give. 

Sergius had heard of the Jewish religion. Its 
purer and sterner faith had attracted many thought- 
ful strangers, who became proselytes. Now there 
was a Jewish sorcerer or magician in Paphos. He 
doubtless passed himself off as a representative of 
the Jewish faith. Sergius Paulus had heard of his 
pretensions to occult powers and mysteries. He- 
had sent for him with the hope of finding that 
truth and satisfaction for which he longed. This 
deceiver was present at the governor's court when 
the two missionaries of the Gospel began their 
work in the city. Sergius Paulus heard of their 
preaching of the Gospel of the Son of God. He 
heard how they claimed to be the ambassadors of 
Jehovah, the God of Israel, and to bring His mes- 
sage; how they preached that Jesus of Nazareth 
was the Redeemer and Saviour of mankind, and 
had been delivered up to the cross for man's of- 
fences, and raised again for his justification, and 



2IO NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

that whosoever believeth in Him should have the 
full and free remission of all his sins. The simple 
and earnest preaching of these sincere and devoted 
missionaries had made an impression in the city. 
The governor had heard about it. The tricks and 
pretensions of his magicians had failed to satisfy 
him. The rumors of the evangelists and their 
pure and wondrous message had waked in his heart 
also longings after the pure and holy. He called 
for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the 
Word of God. This desire for the Word shows the 
workings of preparatory Grace in his heart. It 
was an important step towards his conversion 
when he sent for these preachers of the Gospel. 

It is always a very hopeful and helpful step, 
when the sinner, weary of the vagaries and specu- 
lations of men, seeks out the true ministers of the 
truth, and desires from them light from the Word 
of God. Or, uncertain to whom to go, if he resorts 
simply to his Bible, and prayerfully seeks the light 
from its sacred pages, such an inquirer is already 
entering upon the way of salvation. 

We notice thirdly the work of the Word with 
Sergius Paulus. 

The Word was preached to the governor. It was 
preached in all its plainness and with all its power. 



CONVERSION OF SERGIUS PAUUJS. 211 

It was a new revelation to Sergius Paulus. Such 
wonderful words of life he had never heard. The 
Word was making way in his heart, and he felt 
himself convinced, convicted and drawn. 

The sorcerer saw that he was in danger of losing 
his profitable and influential position. Satan does 
not give up his votaries and victims without an 
effort to hold them. The governor was too valua- 
ble an adherent to give up. He must be held at 
all hazards. The Word of God is not allowed to 
have free course. It must be mightily opposed. 
Barnabas and Saul must be refuted or silenced. 
" Ely mas the sorcerer withstood them, seeking to 
turn away the deputy from the faith." 

So it always is. The proverb says: "Where the 
Lord builds a church the devil puts up a chapel 
along side of it." There are not wanting those 
who like this sorcerer oppose the Word, and try to 
turn every prospective convert away from the faith. 

We have then the ambassador of Christ and the 
child of the devil face to face. We have on the 
one side the plain unvarnished Gospel, on the 
other all subtilty and mischief and perversion. 
We have open candor in conflict with knavery, 
treachery and lies. The prudent governor looks 
on. He hears both sides. He sees the truth and 



212 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

error face to face. Like Janties and Jambres who 
withstood Moses and Aaron in the presence of the 
ruler of Egypt, so Ely mas withstands Paul in the 
presence of the ruler of Cyprus. What will the 
outcome be? Pharaoh had hardened his heart and 
sided with the magicians, against Moses and 
Aaron. 

But Sergius Paulus does not harden his heart. 
He does not resist the truth. He does not stifle con- 
viction, or grieve the Spirit, or dismiss Paul as an- 
other ruler afterwards did, and said: "Go thy way 
for this time ; when I have a more convenient sea- 
son I will e all for thee." The mind of Sergius is 
unbiased. His heart is opened. He hears and re- 
ceives the truth. The truth comes out triumphant. 
Truth needs never to be afraid of error. Truth is 
mighty and must prevail. Wherever hearts are 
not barred against it, truth does prevail. All it 
asks is an unprejudiced mind and a sincere heart. 

Sergius saw and felt the superiority of the truth. 
He saw the trickster and liar confounded. He saw 
the righteous indignation of Paul against the im- 
postor. He heard the authoritative and stern 
rebuke of villainy. He saw its power. He saw 
the would-be miracle worker stricken blind. 

In the stern rebuke of the sorcerer, Sergius must 



CONVERSION OF SERGIUS PAUUJS. 213 

have felt himself rebuked for harboring such a 
child of the devil and enemy of all righteousness. 
This must have moved the governor to shame and 
contrition. Otherwise it would have moved him 
to anger. He felt the rebuke, he bowed under it. 
He repented of his sin. He cherished that godly 
sorrow that leadeth to repentance not to be re- 
pented of 

Further, he believed, as a prudent, clear-headed, 
and wise man. He weighed the truth. He was 
convinced of its superiority. So is every candid 
inquirer. He felt its power in his own heart. He 
saw its power on the wilful impostor. He was as- 
tonished at the doctrine. He accepted the doctrine 
because he saw and felt its power. Why don't 
unbelievers now judge the doctrine by its fruits? 
Why will they shut their eyes against its effects? 
Why deny its purifying and transforming power in 
those who sincerely accept it? Why deny its con- 
quests over error and opposition ? Sergius saw the 
power and was astonished at the doctrine. He 
believed. 

He was therefore a converted man. He had true 
faith, and true faith presupposes penitence. And 
penitence and faith make up conversion. 

We see again how the Spirit wrought through 



214 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the Word. The Word, as the organ of the Spirit, 
did the whole work. The Word is the Lord's 
agency in every conversion. There can be no true 
conversion without the Word. There are true con- 
versions wherever hearts bow to the power of the 
Word. 

Does any one read these pages who has not found 
peace in believing? Reader, are you such an one? 
You believe in another life and another world. 
You have felt your need of some kind of a religion. 
You have perhaps made trial of something that has 
called itself the religion of Jesus Christ. You have 
been deluded, disappointed. Have you then 
thrown away all religion? Why not follow the 
example of Paulus? Go to the Word of God. It 
will satisfy. It will save. It has never disap- 
pointed an honest seeker after truth and life. It 
will not disappoint you. 



SERMON XIV. 



The Conversion of Lydia. 

Acts xvi. 13-16. 



Ads xvi. 13-16. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city 
by a river-side, where prayer was wont to be made ; and we sat 
down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. 

And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the 
city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: 

Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the 
things which were spoken of Paul. 

And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought 
us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, 
come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us. 



SERMON XIV. 

The Apostle Paul was on his second great mis- 
sionary journey. Before he started out on this 
memorable tour, and during the early part of its 
progress, he had met with several sore disappoint- 
ments, so that his plans and purposes seemed to b£ 
repeatedly thwarted. It was while making prepa- 
rations to start out from Autioch, that he had that 
unhappy quarrel with Barnabas, which separated 
these two pioneer missionaries in their future 
activity. In Galatia, it seems, the Apostle was 
detained by a long and severe sickness. When 
they wanted to go into the province called Asia, 
they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the 
Word there. 

Again, when they assayed to go into Bithynia, 
the Spirit suffered them not. 

Thus Paul might have said like Jacob of old, 
All these things are against me. And yet how 
clearly all was overruled for good. Even in that 
unhappy strife God made the wrath of man to praise 
Him. Instead of one missionary band starting out 

(2I 7 ) 



2l8 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

there were two, and instead of two missionaries 
there were four. It was during these disappoint- 
ments also that Paul found and became acquainted 
with young Timothy, who became his most con- 
stant friend and helper and his greatest comfort. 
It was during the providential detention in Galatia 
that he gathered the Churches in that wild region. 
And had it not been for that we would probably 
not have had that important and instructive epistle 
to the Galatians. But most wonderful and best of 
all were the hindrances and refusals to work in 
Asia and Bithynia. That work was to be done 
by others. Paul had a more important present 
mission. Therefore came that remarkable vision 
and that sad, impressive cry from that man of 
Macedonia. 

What a cry that was ! It came from a people 
that had tasted world empire, and had been left 
unsatisfied. It was a translation into words of that 
remarkable scene, when, four hundred years earlier, 
Alexander had returned from conquering the 
world, and sat down on the seashore and wept like 
a child because there were no other worlds to con- 
quer, and his heart longings were not satisfied. 
That Macedonian cry! It came from a people 
that had enjoyed the civilization, and culture, and 



CONVERSION OF LYDIA. 2IO, 

art, and science of Greece in her palmiest days. It 
came from a people that was now enjoying the 
splendor, and renown, and law, and order, and in- 
dulgence of Rome. And still that people cried for 
help! They asked it of a poor and obscure 
preacher of the despised religion of the cross ! 
What a cry was that, from such a people to such a 
helper! Oh yes, it is the same cry that has 
sounded down the ages. We hear its echoes in 
the corridors of the centuries. It is borne across 
the waters, and from the western prairies, and 
ranches, and mining camps to-day. It is the old 
cry from the world to the Church. It is the sad 
wail that comes from the tenement districts, from 
alleys and courts, from the abodes of sin and suffer- 
ing in garret and cellar, from every Christless 
home and heart. Come and help us! We cannot 
help ourselves. The world cannot help us. Its 
money, its friendships and flatteries, its pleasures 
and indulgences, cannot still these longings. We 
need what the Church alone can bring. We need 
the living Gospel of a living Redeemer. Without 
that Gospel in the home and in the heart, 

" What am I but a child crying in the night, 
What am I but a child crying for a light." 



220 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Paul and his companions were not disobedient to 
the heavenly vision. They hastened across the 
gulf. They assuredly gathered that the Lord had 
called them to carry the Gospel into Europe. They 
went to the important city of Philippi. For sev- 
eral days Paul, and Silas, and Timothy, and Luke, 
walked up and down in that strange city, They 
found very few Jews. There was not even a syna- 
gogue. The people seemed not even to know that 
there was a God of heaven and earth. The mis- 
sionaries found no place or opportunity to begin 
their work. They learned that there was a place 
of prayer by the river-side, just outside of the city, 
where a few devout persons were in the habit of 
meeting on the Sabbath day. Thither the four 
missionaries went. They found a few women, 
some Jews, and some proselytes. What a congre- 
gation ! What a place to begin missionary work 
in Europe ! But the missionaries did not despise 
the day of small things. They sat down and spake 
unto the women. They preached to them as Jesus 
preached to the woman at Jacob's well. And that 
was the first preaching of the Gospel in Europe. 
Its immediate result was what we will now 
consider: 



CONVERSION OF LYDIA. 221 

THE CONVERSION OF LYDIA. 

We consider first, what she was before her con- 
version: 

By nationality she was not a Jewess. She was 
of the city of Thyatira. This city was in the 
Roman province of Asia, in which these mission- 
aries were forbidden to preach. Ancient histori- 
ans inform us that the inhabitants of the district 
about Thyatira were so corrupt in their manners 
that the fact had become proverbial. 

In this place and among these people Lydia had 
been born and brought up. 

As she was by birth a Gentile, she was, as a 
matter of course, an idolatress in religion. From 
her childhood she had been trained in the abomi- 
nations and superstitions of heathenism. 

By occupation she was a merchantess, a seller of 
purple. There was a guild of dyers, an associa- 
tion of merchants, such as we would call a union, 
or a trust, in Thyatira, whose goods were much 
sought after everywhere. Lydia was probably a 
member of .this guild, and had a branch or an 
agency at Philippi. 

As to her circumstances, Lydia was what in 
those days would be called rich. She had a house 
in Philippi that was large enough to accommodate 



222 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the four missionaries in addition to her household. 
She had means enough to entertain these men 
comfortably while they were in the city, and she 
doubtless was one of those Philippians whose lib- 
erality afterwards helped to support Paul in his old 
age and imprisonment, and also ministered to the 
poor saints at Jerusalem. 

Now all these things were certainly not calcu- 
lated to predispose her to give serious attention to 
religion. They were rather all hindrances to a 
pious disposition. Her Gentile birth and heathen 
training were against her. Her occupation would 
tend to fill her more and more with the cares of 
this life, and make her more and more worldly. 
The deceitfulness of riches would exert its wither- 
ing influence on her and make it hard to enter the 
kingdom of God. 

And yet, in spite of all this unfavorable environ- 
ment, Lydia had made certain advances towards a 
better life. Instead of demoralizing more and more, 
she had improved herself. She had renounced 
heathenism. She had learned about Jehovah, 
the God of Israel, the Maker of heaven and earth. 
She had accepted the teachings concerning the 
true God. As far as she knew Him, she believed 
in and worshipped Him. It was in such a state 
and condition that Paul found her. 



CONVERSION OF LYDIA. 223 

We inquire secondly, What did she do towards 
her own conversion? 

From what we are told further on about her 
heart being opened, it is clear that her heart was 
originally closed against divine Grace. And this 
is indeed the sad truth as to every heart so long as 
it is in its natural and unrenewed state. The un- 
regenerate heart is ' ' deceitful above all things and 
desperately wicked." Out of it proceed " evil 
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, 
false witness, blasphemies. " " Every imagination 
of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continu- 
ally." The natural man has his ''''understanding 
darkened, " u is alie?iated from the life of God 
through the ignorance that is in him, because of the 
blindness of his heart. ' ' He ' ' receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God .... neither can he 
know them," He is "dn darkness," "dead in 
trespasses and sins." His heart is a "heart of 
stone. ' ' 

It is of course utterly out of the question that 
the sinner should by his own reason or strength be 
able to change a heart so wicked, corrupt, blind, 
stony, dead. If that heart is to be opened, 
changed and quickened, it will certainly be not by 
human '"''might nor by power, but by my Spirit, 



224 N E W TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

saith the Lord, " for " no man can say that Jesus is 
the Lord, btit by the Holy Ghost.'''' 

And yet Lydia did something towards her con- 
version. 

What did she do? 

First, she heard the Word. She had heard it 
from the Jews. Through it she had learned the sin 
of idolatry, and the doctrine of the true God. She 
attended the public worship of the believers in the 
true God. She went to church with them. She 
associated herself with them in their worship and 
hearing of the Word. Secondly, she entered 
heartily into that worship. She worshipped. She 
was not a disinterested looker on. She prayed 
herself as best she could. Thirdly, when Paul 
came and spoke the New Testament Word, the 
sweet and precious Gospel of Jesus Christ, she at- 
tended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. 
She gave attention; she listened eagerly; she lost 
not a word; she took it all in. 

Thus much the sinner can do. He can seek 
out and associate with God's people. He can go 
with them to church. He can hear the W T ord of 
God. He can hear that Word attentively, and 
when that Word stirs up longings, he can express 
them, even if in inarticulate, halting and broken 



CONVERSION OF LYDIA. 225 

petitions. This is his part in the work. Thus 
much did Lydia do towards her conversion. 

We inquire thh-dly, what did God do in her con- 
version ? 

The simple words of the record are, " whose 
heart the Lord opened. ' ' 

We have seen certain seeds encased in such close 
and hard pods that one would wonder how they 
would ever open. But in the gentle rains of early 
autumn those pods would become soaked, as little 
by little the moisture worked its way in, until 
gradually they would spread, and the seams would 
open and let the full drops fall on the seeds within. 

We have seen the rose-bud hanging on its stem 
enfolded tightly in its green casings. But as the 
sunshine would fall upon that bud, as its gentle 
warmth would work its way inward, reaching fold 
after fold, the shriveled leaves would unfold and 
spread until the outer casement was broken, and 
by and by the full blown rose in all its queenly 
beauty drank in the full rays of the sun, and gave 
out its rich and odorous perfume. And thus was 
the heart of Lydia opened. 

How did the Lord open it? Through His Word. 
That Word of which He says: ll As the rain cometh 
down and the snow fi'om heaven, and returneth not 



226 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it bring 
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower 
and bread to the eater, so shall my Word be that 
goeth forth out of my mouth: It shall not return 
unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I 
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I 
sent it." Again He says: "My doctrine shall drop 
as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the 
small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers 
upon the grassy Thus had the Lord opened her 
heart through the Word. Through it the sun of 
righteousness did rise upon her with healing on His 
wings. 

That Word had come to her first as the law. 
She had learned first from the Old Testament, of 
which the law was best known and first taught to 
proselytes. Through this the prevenient or pre- 
paratory Grace of God had reached her heart. 
This law taught her to see, and made her feel, her 
need. It awakened and intensified in her a long- 
ing for salvation. The law became her school- 
master to bring her to Christ — i. e., her leader to 
take her by the hand and lead her towards Christ. 

And now when this preparatory work had been 
softening and making ready the heart, Paul brought 
the life-giving Gospel. And through this power 



CONVERSION OF LYDIA. 227 

of God unto salvation the Lord more fully opened 
her heart. This Gospel not only showed her and 
instructed her about that Jesus who shall save His 
people from their sins; but this Gospel brought 
that very Saviour home to her heart. "Say not in 
thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven, that is to 
bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend 
into the deep, that is to bring Christ up again from 
the dead." For u the Word is nigh thee . . . that 
is the Word of faith which we preach." Thus 
Christ comes through the written and preached 
Word, through it He opens the heart and enables 
the sinner to open it, as He says: "Behold, I stand 
at the door and knock ; if any man hear my voice 
and open the door, I will come in to him. It is by 
hearing His voice as it sounds in His Word, that 
He opens in such a way that in one sense the 
sinner opens, with the strength that comes in hear- 
ing. 

But Christ also comes through the sacramental 
or visible Word. ' '■Know ye not that as many of 
you as were baptized into fesus Chtist were bap- 
tized into His death ? " ' { For as many of you as 
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.^'' 
This sacramental Word concerning which Paul, 
who everywhere speaks of it in such strong terms 



228 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

as a positive bearer of Grace, must have instructed 
her in his discourse, Lydia also desired. Paul ad- 
ministered to her then and there this Divine means 
of Grace. Through it her heart was still more 
fully opened, and Christ was brought more fully 
into that heart; and thus Lydia was converted. 

We might here refer to the question in passing, 
Why are the individual baptisms mentioned in the 
New Testament all those of adults, and why is 
there no distinct and specific mention of infant 
baptisms? Waiving here the question of the four 
family baptisms that we have recorded, besides 
four others that we can legitimately infer, we 
answer as follows: First. The labors of the apostles 
were missionary labors, and not the labors of settled 
pastors in well established congregations. As 
missionaries, they had to begin with the parents 
and adults. When these were converted they were 
baptized, and if parents, their households. The 
same procedure is necessarily followed by our mis- 
sionaries at the present day. Their first baptisms 
are adult baptisms. They would not baptize the 
children while under the control of heathen or un- 
believing parents. It would be as legitimate to 
infer and try to prove that our missionaries do not 
believe in infant baptism because they report 



CONVERSION OF LYDIA. 229 

annually so many adult baptisms, as to conclude 
that the apostles disbelieved in infant baptism 
because we have the record of their adult baptisms. 
Secondly. And this is an important point. Even 
if we should grant — as we by no means do — that 
there is no account of infant baptisms in the Bible, 
where is there a single instance of the baptism of 
an adult who had grown up in a Christian house- 
hold? Such an instance would be parallel to the 
adult baptisms in the Baptist church of to-day. 
But there is none. Every single adult baptism 
mentioned is that of a convert from Judaism or 
heathenism. Such adult baptism we also practice. 
But why is there no instance of the baptism of one 
grown up in a believing family? It was more 
than thirty years from the death of Christ to the 
death of Paul — plenty of time for the children of 
his first converts to become adults. Were they 
baptized? When? The record tells us that when 
parents were converted and baptized, their house- 
holds were baptized. Bengel pertinently asks: 
' ( Who can believe that in so many families there 
was no infant? And that the Jews who were wont 
to circumcise, and the Gentiles who purified them 
by washings, did not also present them for bap- 
tism?" No, no; the idea of excluding children 



230 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

from the covenant blessings is contradictory to the 
whole scheme of redemption and to the inmost 
spirit of the Gospel. God Himself ordained infant 
membership in His church. He alone has the 
right to revoke it. He has never done so, there- 
fore it stands. Infants had a place in the old 
covenant. The new is not narrower but wider. 
The promise was to Lydia and to her children, if 
she had any. Her household was baptized. 

We notice briefly in conclusion, The Fruits of 
Lydia's Conversion. The first fair fruit of that 
change of heart, was a change in her home. It 
became henceforth only really worthy of that 
sacred name, home. A Christian home is a type 
of heaven. Outside of a sanctuary of the Most 
High, there is no spot on earth more happy, holy 
and heavenly, than a Christian home. There is a 
"church in the house." There the religion of the 
blessed Saviour permeates the whole atmosphere. 
There the Word of God dwells richly. There are 
altars of prayer, and closets for prayer. There 
Jesus is a daily and well-known Guest. There the 
children, baptized into Christ, are nourished with 
the sincere milk of the Word, and grow thereby. 
In such a home, parents and children, all children 
of one Father, kneel at one altar, with the same 



CONVERSION OF LYDIA. 23 1 

trust, the same love, the same hope, the same 
Lord. 

The religion that God ordained in the old cove- 
nant was essentially a family religion. The relig- 
ion of the new covenant is the same. Where father 
or mother are converted, one of the fruits of that 
conversion is a change in the home life. Such was 
one of the fruits of Lydia's conversion. 

Another fruit of that conversion was that she at 
once began to cultivate a true Christian hospitality. 
This also was a New Testament fruit from an Old 
Testament seed. Hospitality was practiced by the 
patriarchs and saints of old. They were not for- 
getful to entertain strangers, and thereby some had 
entertained angels unawares. This Christian grace 
Lydia now cultivated. 

Luke, one of the four missionaries, writes: "She 
besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be 
faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide 
there. And she constrained us." She took in the 
four missionaries. She entertained and provided 
for them while they were in the city. She freely, 
of her substance, ministered to their necessities. 

And what a gain it must have been to her! She 
furnished the missionaries a home and meat and 
drink. They gave to her the bread and water of 



232 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

life, and thus nourished her for life eternal in the 
heavenly home. Thus was she further instructed 
and strengthened in the new life. Thus was she 
more and more sanctified through the truth of God's 
Word. 

And this was the beginning of the evangeliza- 
tion of Europe. Here is encouragement for mis- 
sionaries and ministers. Here is inspiration for 
laborers in new and hard fields. Here is hope for 
small congregations. Let ministers be faithful 
like Paul, let converts be true and devoted like 
Lydia, and the Word will grow and multiply. 



SERMON XV. 



THE CONVERSION OF THE PHILIPPIAN 
JAILOR. 

Acts xvi. 25-34. 



Ads xvi. 25-34. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and 
sang praises unto God : and the prisoners heard them. 

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the found- 
ations of the prison were shaken : and immediately all the 
doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. 

And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and 
seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would 
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. 

But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: 
for we are all here. 

Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, 
and fell down before Paul and Silas, 

And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be 
saved? 

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved, and thy house. 

And they spake unto him the Word of the Lord, and to all 
that were in his house. 

And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed 
their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. 

And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat 
before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. 



SERMON XV. 

AFTER the Gospel had gained its first foot-hold 
in Europe through Paul's speaking the Word to a 
few devout women, gathered for prayer at the river 
side, just outside of Philippi, the house of Lydia, 
the first European convert, became the headquar- 
ters of the new cause. Paul and Silas and Timothy 
and Luke made that house their home during their 
stay in the city. For many days they prosecuted 
their work with peace and prosperity. They still 
preached to and prayed with the people who met 
at that river side. 

But trouble soon arose. The kingdom of God 
cannot be built without opposition from the king- 
dom of darkness. The prince of this world would 
not stand idly by and see the Gospel gain a perma- 
nent footing in Europe. His ingenuity and power 
must be employed to kill this new life in its be- 
ginning. The devil uses many and various means. 
He is fertile in resources. He is cunning, crafty 
and full of guile. 

At Paphos he had withstood and fought against 
(235) 



236 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Paul openly. Paul had met, resisted and routed 
him. At Philippi he tries a new plan. He had 
failed to frighten as a roaring lion. He will now 
flatter as an angel of light. 

For many days a certain damsel possessed with 
a spirit of divination, i. <?., an evil spirit by which 
she charmed, told fortunes and astounded the peo- 
ple, followed the apostles. In the hearing of the 
people who gathered to hear the apostles, she con- 
tinually uttered this remarkable cry: "These men 
are the servants of the most high God, which show 
tmto us the way of salvation!" Noble words! 
Blessed testimony ! 

But why should an evil spirit utter such senti- 
ments ? It may have been from constraint. The 
evil spirit may have recognized in that Christ, 
whom these servants of the most high God 
preached, their Master and Judge. Like the de- 
moniac of our Saviour's time, who cried out in 
terror before Him, and confessed Him to be the 
Christ the Son of the Living God, and acknowl- 
edged that He would one day torment them as 
their judge; so the evil spirit in this poor maiden 
may have cried out and confessed in terror. 

But it may also be that this evil spirit offered the 
Apostles his help and co-operation. It may be that 



THE PHILIPPIAN JAILOR. 237 

it was his dark design to help along the preachers, 
to preach the Gospel himself, in order to draw them 
into a league with himself, and afterwards easily 
overthrow their whole work. No doubt he has in 
this way beguiled and ruined many a Gospel min- 
ister and many a congregation. 

But, whatever may have been the motive of that 
cry, Paul would no more accept testimony to the 
truth or any kind of help from the devil, than 
would Christ his Master. "Paul, being grieved, 
turned and said to the spirit, I command thee, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And he 
came out the same hour. ' ' 

Now this damsel was a slave girl. She was the 
property of her masters. They had been making 
money out of her soothsaying and divining. They 
saw that the hope of their gains was gone. They 
loudly and vehemently accused the Apostles before 
the magistrates as law-breakers and disturbers of 
the public peace. Pretending to act in the interest 
of law and order, they inflamed the multitude and 
the magistrates against the preachers. Mob law 
was invoked. Without trial or sentence the Apos- 
tles were scourged, thrown into the inner prison or 
dungeon, their feet fastened in the stocks, a kind 
of a foot-rack, forcing the feet apart and holding 



238 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

them in a vise-like grip. And thus with bruised 
and bleeding flesh, quivering with pain, without 
light or air, or food or drink, were the sufferers left 
for the night. What a night was before them! 
Little did they know that it was to be a night of 
triumph and conquest for them. And yet, so it 
turned out. It witnessed the jailor* s conversion. 

In studying that remarkable conversion, we look 
first at the jailor himself, and his environment. 

We know little about him as a man. Of his 
former life we know nothing. We only know that 
he was a heathen in that corrupt and cruel age. 

His office was a menial one. Even now it is the 
exception to find a refined and humane person oc- 
cupying the position of jailor. 

But prison life and rule is vastly different from 
what it was in the dark days of heathenism. The 
religion of Jesus Christ has thrown its softening, 
sympathizing, and refining influences even into the 
gloom and degradation of prison life. There is 
still much room for improvement. Christian prin- 
ciples do not always prevail in so-called Christian 
cities. There is too much heathenism in too many 
hearts and lives. But, with all this, it is vastly 
better than it was. And even where Christian 
principles are professedly disbelieved, their in- 
fluence makes itself felt. 



THE PHIUPPIAN JAILOR. 239 

In the days of Rome's declining glory, as a rule, 
the low, corrupt and heartless were selected as 
jailors. Even if upright and humane before, the 
exercise of their office would tend to degrade 
them. They worked and lived with the vile and 
abandoned. Day by day they would see scenes of 
degradation and brutality. They were compelled 
to hear profanity and vulgarity. They would be 
exasperated by the conduct of those under their 
care. They were compelled to be inhuman and 
cruel. If not naturally without feeling and hard- 
hearted, they would perforce become more and 
more so. To this class the Philippian belonged. 
Such were his occupation and associations. Surely 
all these things were against him. 

His environment gave little promise of a better 
life. He would be considered a rather hopeless 
subject on which to expend missionary effort. It 
is not the least of the glories of the young Church 
that she won so many of her converts from the 
ranks of those who seemed to be in every way pre- 
disposed to wickedness and unbelief. It is no 
small testimony to the power of the Gospel that it 
can and in every age does reach, convert, and 
entirely change the hearts and lives of such per- 
sons. 



240 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

We desire to notice secondly, that conversion 
itself. In studying this it is well to notice what 
preceded it and likely prepared the way. We re- 
call the significant cry of the possessed damsel: 
' ' These men are the servants of the most high God, 
which show unto us the way of salvation.''' 1 This 
cry had been publicly uttered for many days, by 
one notorious in the city. Quite naturally it be- 
came the talk of the town. The jailor also would 
hear about it Questions would be asked, "Who 
is that most high God?" "What is that salvation, 
and what that way which these strange messengers 
proclaim ? ' ' 

Paul had, by a word in the name of Him whom 
they preached, driven out the spirit. The girl 
had become quiet and rational. What did it all 
mean? 

The principal preachers of this new way of salva- 
tion had been rudely and illegally arrested, dragged 
before the city magistrates, condemned without a 
trial, stripped of their clothing and cruelly beaten 
with rods. Under all this abuse and torture it 
seems that the victims uttered no word of complaint 
or malediction. 

Faint and bruised and bleeding, they were given 
into the custody of the jailor, who, it seems, wit- 



THE PHILIPPIAN JAILOR. 241 

nessed the whole violent procedure. He was 
charged to keep them safely. When he violently 
thrust them into the inner prison and made their 
feet fast in the cruel stocks, they did not curse 
him, as he probably expected. Their whole de- 
meanor must have impressed him deeply. He had 
never handled such prisoners before. 

Leaving them thus in their misery and agony, 
the jailor went to bed. Now, if the man had any 
thought and feeling at all, what would be more 
natural than that he should lie down thinking of 
these strange men, their strange conduct and their 
strange work in the city? And so he went to 
sleep with strange and new thoughts and feelings. 
And in that sleep, perchance a restless, dreamy 
sleep, what dreams he may have had! Judging 
from the sequel, we believe that prevenient Grace 
was at work. He was being prepared for conver- 
sion. In a tragic and dramatic way was that 
conversion brought to a crisis. 

The two notable prisoners meanwhile were sit- 
ting and suffering through the weary hours. And 
how did they beguile away the long tedium of the 
night? "At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and 
sang praises unto God." The prisoners heard 
them. Never before, we opine, had such sounds 



242 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

been heard in that place. Those cells and corridors 
were wont to resound with curses and maledictions. 
If ever the voice of song had been heard there, it 
must have been the maudlin mutterings of the 
ribald wretch. And now the music that rises and 
swells through those sad and gloomy cells, at that 
midnight hour, is a song of prayer and praise to 
the most high God. 

And while their God is giving to these martyrs 
songs in the night, another strange event occurs, 
no doubt as an answer to those midnight prayers 
and praises. The foundations of the old prison 
begin to tremble and the walls begin to rock. So 
violent becomes the earthquake that the chains are 
loosed from the prisoners, the stocks fly from 
their feet, and the doors stand wide open! Did 
they stop singing? We believe not. Why should 
they, when they recognized heaven's amen to their 
devotions? 

The jailor is startled from his fitful slumbers. 
He springs up frightened and almost frenzied. If 
the singing is still going on, he neither hears nor 
heeds. He sees the open doors. He believes the 
prisoners are fled. He knows his life will have to 
answer for their escape. Roman-like, he decides 
on suicide. He draws his sword — but is arrested. 



THE PHIUPPIAN JAILOR. 243 

Paul sees or hears what is going on. He calls out 
in a clear tone, " Do thyself no harm.''' 1 How 
much is in these words! They proclaim the whole 
aim and object of the Gospel. It is the intent and! 
purpose of this blessed Gospel of the Son of God to< 
keep mankind from self-inflicted harm and ruin. 
He who is harmed and ruined is so by his own' 
hand. Whoever perishes under the sound or in 
reach of the Gospel, is a spiritual suicide. 

" We are all here.' 1 ' 1 We, servants of the most 
high God, would not fly, because we are under our 
God's protection, and fear not what man may do 
unto us. The other prisoners heard our prayers 
and praises. They see the answer. They desire 
to remain with us. The language of their hearts 
is ' ' Thy God shall be my God. ' ' And so we are all 
here. The jailor saw the influence and power of 
these servants of the most high God. 

And now he recalled again that momentous cry 
of the sooth-saying damsel. What did she say? 
Who are these men? "Servants of the most high 
God." And how were they treated? And how 
did they bear it? They did neither abuse nor curse 
me. Didn't I hear them singing? And they keep 
all these prisoners here, though the doors are 
wide open. Oh yes! They must be messengers of 



244 N EW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the Most High. And what am I over against these 
men? How have I ill-treated them? How have 
they suffered at my hands ? What a wretch I am ! 
Their God sent this earthquake. He will take 
vengeance on me. Whither shall I fly ? But hold ! 
What did that girl say? " They show unto us the 
zvay of salvation." Is there a way to be saved? 
Would that I knew it. I'll ask them: "Sirs, what 
must I do to be saved f I am lost. I want to be 
saved, if I only knew how. Tell me. What 
must I do? I'll do anything. 

Thus, we judge, was conviction doing its work 
in his heart. Paul answered that anxious and 
momentous question. How brief his answer! And 
yet how full! Does it not contain the very marrow 
of the Gospel ? What is the theme and import of 
the Gospel? Is it not this? Man is a poor lost 
and condemned sinner.* Jesus Christ came into the 
world to save sinners. He offers Himself through 
His Word and sacraments. Wherever thus offered, 
the one great fundamental, all-conditioning and 
damning sin, is unbelief. The one underlying, 
all-conditioning condition of being saved is faith in 
Christ. And all this is embraced in Paul's answer. 
And then Paul goes on and speaks to him and his 
whole household the Word of the Lord. 



THE PHILIPPIAN JAILOR. 245 

He thus leads that now turning inquirer on into 
the full light of trust and assurance. Taking his 
own brief answer to the jailor for a text, he would 
naturally go on and instruct him further. He 
would instruct him about the Lord Jesus Christ, 
His coming, His person and work. He would ex- 
plain the benefits that flow from that atoning work. 
He would show how the Holy Spirit applies those 
benefits through the Word and Sacraments. How 
that by these repentance is wrought, faith begotten, 
and Grace imparted. Thus would he show to the 
inquirers the way of salvation. In pointing out the 
way, he would be leading the hearers into that 
way. In learning about Christ, the Word would 
enable those who rightly heard, to know Christ 
and the fellowship of His suffering, and the power 
of His resurrection. And here indeed is one of the 
chief glories of the Word of God. It not only tells 
about salvation, but in its words it is able to save 
the soul. 

Paul believed strongly in the Sacraments. He 
had such implicit faith in Christ, that he had faith 
in everything that comes from the hands of Christ. 

In his writings he lays great store by baptism, 
and calls it ' ' the washing of regeneration, and re- 
newing of the Holy Ghost." 



246 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

He would naturally instruct the jailor and his 
household as to the nature and benefits of this holy 
sacrament. They accepted the instruction. u He 
was baptized, he- and his, straightway.'''' 

And thus was the jailor converted. In his con- 
version we can clearly trace the two component 
elements, penitence and faith. His trepidation, 
prostration and anxious cry show a deep-felt ab- 
horrence of self and sin. His desire to be saved 
implies a confession of being lost and being help- 
less. His penitence was deep and heart-felt. It 
emerged into faith. With longing heart he listened 
to the Word of the Lord. As he listened he was 
drawn. His heart was more fully opened. He 
believed. 

Faith came by hearing, and hearing by the Word 
of God. It was a peculiar, and in some respects an 
extraordinary conversion. It was sudden and 
strongly marked. There was something of a 
miraculous agency in it. It was in part hastened 
by an earthquake. It will not do to take it for a 
general model. Those who want to be converted 
just as the jailor was, must needs have an earth- 
quake accompaniment. Those who wish to be 
converted exactly as Paul was, must have a flash 
of blinding light from the sky, an audible voice, 



THE PHIUPPIAN JAILOR. 247 

and a visible appearance of Jesus. These are ex- 
traordinary and miraculous features. They were 
only accompaniments. They did not carry con- 
verting power. That was carried in both cases, as 
it is in every case, by the living Word of God. 

The jailor's also was an unusual case. He was 
an uncultured man. The animal naturally pre- 
dominated over the intellectual. He would be 
influenced more strongly by feeling than by judg- 
ment, and this would have a tendency to make the 
change more or less violent in its manifestations. 
Again, the contrast between his former life and the 
new life would be much greater than in the case of 
Ivydia. This also would tend to make his a 
strongly marked conversion. 

There are sudden and strongly marked conver- 
sions still. But it will not do to make them the 
rule. They ought to be exceptions in the Church. 
It is better to grow up like Timothy than to be 
converted like Paul. It is far better to be filled 
with the Holy Ghost from the womb than to be 
converted like the jailor. Inside of the Church the 
Samuels and Jeremiahs and Johns and Timothys 
ought to be the rule, and the Sauls and jailors the 
exception. And if the Church had not drifted 
away from the old scriptural doctrine of baptismal 



248 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

Grace and a baptismal covenant, such would still be 
the case. May the Lord help us to "stand in the 
ways and see, atid ask for the old paths, where is 
the good way, and walk therein. ' ' 

We can only refer briefly to the fruits of the 
jailor's conversion: 

We notice first, that here, as in Lvdia's case, he 
was baptized and all his. It was another house- 
hold baptism. The conversion of the head of the 
house brought the religion of Christ into the 
family. This is a blessed fruit of a true conver- 
sion. Let the heart of father or mother be 
changed, and the home will be changed. We 
know of a young man who said with bitterness, 
"Yes, my father can pray at prayer-meeting, but 
I never heard him pray at home." We doubted 
that father's religion. "Let them learn first to 
show piety at home." When Zaccheus was con- 
verted, salvation came to his house. So to the 
jailor's. 

A second fruit. He rejoiced, believing with his 
whole house. Faith brings joy into the heart and 
into the home. There is no joy like the Chris- 
tian's joy. It banishes long faces, and heavy 
hearts, and complaining lips. It enables Paul and 
Silas to sing with glad hearts, though their backs 



THE PHILIPPIAN JAILOR. 249 

are swollen and torn, and their feet are fast in the 
stocks. It brings a new joy into the heart of the 
formerly rough jailor, and his home becomes radi- 
ant with gladness. True, abiding joy is a fruit of 
true conversion. 

Again: That formerly cruel man became merci- 
ful. He took those prisoners that same hour of the 
night and washed their stripes. Surely he had 
never done this before ! 

He had screwed the ankles of these men into the 
cruel stocks, and left them in their pain and 
anguish, a few hours ago. Now he gently, with 
his own hands, bathes the cuts and bruises, and al- 
lays their burning. What a change was here! 
He had obtained mercy, and he willingly exercises 
mercy. 

The spirit of Christ is a spirit of mercy and 
good-will. It feeds the hungry and clothes the 
naked, and ministers to the sick and imprisoned. 
It does it in Jesus' name and for Jesus > sake. The 
world knew nothing of mercy to unfortunates and 
prisoners till it learned to know Christ. The ex- 
ercise of mercy, pure and disinterested, is a fruit of 
conversion. 

And finally, he showed hospitality. He brought 
the prisoners into his house and set meat before 



25O NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

them. Think of a Roman jailor spreading his own 
table in the night, and inviting his prisoners to sit 
down and partake of his meat! Surely such a 
thing had never been heard of before. He had left 
those two prisoners in the evening in their agony 
and fever without even a drink of water. Now he 
spreads a table for them in his own house. Here 
was a change. The change of heart made the 
change of life. His conversion made him hospita- 
ble and liberal. It opened not only his heart but 
his home, his hand and his store. A blessed fruit 
of conversion. 

Reader, are you converted? The question is not 
when, or where, or how; but are you now in a 
converted state? Have you now in your heart the 
elements of the new life? Do you hate, flee from, 
and mourn over sin? Do you constantly turn to 
the Lord Jesus Christ as your only Saviour and 
Redeemer? Do you believe? Do you rejoice believ- 
ing? Does your religion show itself in your home 
life? Are you merciful? Are you liberal and hos- 
pitable? "Examine yourself, whether you be in the 
faith: prove your own self'' 



SERMON XVI, 



A. SPURIOUS CONVERSION. 

Acts. viii. 9-14, and 18-25. 



Acts viii. 9-14, and 18-25. But there was a certain man 
called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery 
and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself 
was some great one : 

To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, 
saying, This man is the great power of God. 

And to him they had regard, because that of long time he 
had bewitched them with sorceries. 

But when they believed Philip preaching the things concern- 
ing the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they 
were baptized, both men and women. 

Then Simon himself believed also : and when he was bap- 
tized, he continued with Philip, and wondered ; beholding the 
miracles and signs which were done. 

And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' 
hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, say- 
ing, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands 
he may receive the Holy Ghost. 

But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, be- 
cause thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased 
with money. 

Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter. For thy heart 
is not right in the sight of God. 

Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if 
perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. 

For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in 
the bond of iniquity. 

Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, 
that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon 
me. 



SERMON XVI. 

AFTER the martyrdom of Stephen, the persecu- 
tion raged fiercely against the young Church. 
That Church was now receiving its first baptism 
of blood. The blood of the martyr Stephen proved 
a prolific seed of the Church. The disciples, with 
the exception of the twelve Apostles, one of whom 
soon became a martyr also, were scattered abroad 
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. 
They went everywhere, preaching the Word. 
Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and 
preached Christ unto them. His success was 
wonderful. The people with one accord gave heed 
unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and 
seeifig the miracles which he did. Philip gathered in 
a great harvest, and there was great joy in that city. 

But even there the enemy sowed tares among the 
wheat, and the Gospel net gathered in of fishes both 
bad and good. Simon the sorcerer had for a long 
time practiced the black art of sorcery among those 
rude and ignorant people. Man, even in the dark- 
ness of heathenism, feels that he is related to a 
higher world. He must believe something. He 
(253) 



254 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

believes in and fears the unseen powers of an un- 
seen world. This intuitive faith in the unseen, has 
always been utilized by imposters. They delude 
the ignorant and superstitious either by mere pre- 
tensions and juggleries, or receive aid in their 
sorceries from the father of lies, who is the prince 
of the powers of the air, and worketh hitherto in the 
children of disobedience, 

Simon was one of these practitioners of the black 
art. He gave out that himself was some great one. 
He taught or encouraged the people to regard him 
as a sort of an incarnation, as the great power of 
God. 

But when Philip came, preaching Christ and the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God, Simon's 
former followers resorted to the evangelist, heard 
him gladly, and believed the Gospel which he 
preached. Simon, forsaken of his admirers, also 
came and heard the Word' and saw the miracles 
that were wrought in the name of Jesus. He was 
astonished and professed conversion. The sequel 
shows that his was a spurious conversion. The ac- 
count of it was no doubt written for our warning. 
We do well therefore to learn and take to heart its 
lessons. 

We notice first his profession. He came and 



A SPURIOUS CONVERSION. 255 

listened to the preaching of Philip. He heard the 
plain and earnest Gospel message concerning Christ 
and His kingdom. Wherever this pure old Gospel 
is preached there is a wonderful charm and effect- 
iveness about it. Simon no doubt felt himself 
drawn by its mysterious influence. That influence 
would make itself even more felt by winning a 
multitude of converts. So it is still. That old 
Gospel has not lost its power. It still interests and 
influences and moves the children of men. Even 
those who come to its preaching at first from 
curiosity are soon made to feel its mysterious mov- 
ings. Philip accompanied the preaching of Christ 
with miracles wrought in His name. This as- 
tonished Simon still more. Who was this Christ, 
in whose name such mighty deeds could be done? 
Simon was persuaded that this Christ must be some 
great One. He was ready to believe in Him as a 
being possessing miraculous power. He professed 
to believe all that Philip said. He admitted that 
it must be historically true. He believed what was 
said about Christ, in the same sense in which he 
might have believed some orator setting forth the 
wonderful achievements of Alexander the Great or 
Julius Caesar. It was an intellectual credence, a 
historic assent, Only this, and nothing more. 



256 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

So it ever has been and so it is with multitudes 
of hearers still. They admit the truth of the Bible. 
They accept its facts and teachings just as they 
accept the contents of a biography of George 
Washington or Abraham Lincoln. They yield it 
a historic credence, and nothing more. 

Simon went a step further. He not only gave 
credence to what he heard about Christ, but he 
publicly confessed his belief. We know from the 
record of the Acts that no adult was permitted to 
be baptized without making a profession of faith. 
Only on making such a profession were converts 
baptized and received into the communicant mem- 
bership of the Church. Simon offered himself for 
baptism. He was accepted, and became a full 
member of the young Church at Samaria. 

Philip was not omniscient. He could not see 
the heart. He could only hear the profession. On 
that he baptized Simon and admitted him into the 
congregation. 

The apostles had likewise admitted Ananias and 
Sapphira into the congregation at Jerusalem. 
Now if inspired apostles and evangelists were thus 
imposed on by the insincere, why should it be 
thought a strange thing that such is still the case? 
The Church does not want it so. She does not 



A SPURIOUS CONVERSION. 257 

encourage hypocrisy. If she did, then it would be 
fair to lay the blame on her. But as long as she 
faithfully protests against all insincerity and 
hypocrisy, as long as she earnestly warns against all 
sin, and shows the judgment of God against all 
such conduct, her skirts are clear, and it is the 
grossest injustice to hold these things up as a re- 
proach on her fair name. 

Wherever there is a pastor and congregation 
who encourage or even connive at a false profes- 
sion, let them be held responsible. 

We notice secondly the serious defects in Simon's 
case. 

From the whole account it is clear that his heart 
remained in the world and still clung to the treas- 
ures of earth. 

It is expected of every one who desires to become 
a follower of Christ, that he be willing to deny 
himself and take up his cross and follow Him. He 
who truly comes to Christ, in that very act re- 
nounces, gives up and sacrifices his former self- 
pleasing. His coming implies that instead of say- 
ing as theretofore, "What do / feel like doing?" 
he will henceforth say, "Lord, what wilt thou have 
me to do?" 

Simon's idea was the very opposite of this. 



258 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

When he saw Philip working miracles he longed 
to have this power also. When Peter and John 
came, and by the laying on of their hands imparted 
the gift to work miracles to certain persons, 
Simon wanted this apostolic power also. 

Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay 
hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. This was 
his request, and for the granting of it he was will- 
ing to pay. 

Why did he want this power? Evidently that 
he might use it as he used his sorceries in former 
times. The people had paid him liberally for his 
deeds of magic. Here was something that trans- 
cended all his pretended powers. If he could ac- 
quire this feat, what a name it would give him! 
How he would then astound the multitudes far be- 
yond those former days! And what money it 
would bring in! Everybody would be willing to 
pay for such an endowment from his hands! It 
would prove a bonanza, and make him a rich and 
renowned man! Yes, Simon had come into the 
Church, and now he wanted to make his Church 
membership pay. 

It is a humilitating fact that Simon has had 
multitudes of followers. There are many who still 
come into the Church for worldly advantage. 



A SPURIOUS CONVERSION. 259 

Persons come into a new community. They visit 
and investigate the different churches in the place. 
For what purpose ? Is it to find out where the 
Word of God is preached in its greatest purity, and 
where the sacraments are administered in accord- 
ance with the Word? This should be the motive. 
But, alas! these people are not looking for a spirit- 
ual home. They are not seeking truth. They are 
not in search of nourishment for the spiritual man. 
They are after earthly gain. They want to find 
out where the best society people go. They want 
social standing and advantage for themselves or 
their families. Where they find fashion, and tone, 
and popularity, there they will worship — popular 
favor! 

Or, they are ambitious. They want to rise in 
the world. They desire a name and a fame. 
They would like to have a political office. Perhaps 
they can get it through the Church! In which 
church can they win the most influence, and gain 
the most votes? That shall be their church. 
There they will make profession — of a lie! 

Or, they have an eye to business. They want 
customers for their wares. Which church will 
furnish the most? The writer knows of a com- 
mercial firm of four brothers: each one belongs to 



26o NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the leading church of a different denomination. 
Rumor says the object is to draw trade from all the 
denominations. Such persons are often quite 
liberal. They ostentatiously give large sums of 
money, because they believe it a good investment. 
They are the followers of Simon Magus. Godliness 
is gain with them. They are in the Church to 
bow down to mammon! 

Now all such persons have a name to live, while 
they are dead. They have a form of godliness, but 
know nothing of its power. They may have wit- 
nessed a good confession before many witnesses. 
They may have used the sacraments and heard the 
Word. But they are unconverted Church members. 

Such was Simon. Peter tells him that he is 
still in the gall of bitterness. His heart was still 
so full of sin, unrepented of and unforgiven, that it 
was like the overflowing of bitter gall. 

He is still in the bond of iniquity. Iniquity 
fetters him like a bond. His spirit is bound with 
it as with a chain. He has the old deceitful and 
stony heart. It has not been softened by contri- 
tion. It has not been purified through faith. Even 
that semblance of repentance which he shows after 
Peter's scathing rebuke and denunciation, bears 
the mark of spuriousness on its face. He cries 



A SPURIOUS CONVERSION. 261 

out cravenly: "Pray ye to the Lord for me, that 
none of these things which ye have spoken come upon 
me." Peter had exhorted him to pray. He says: 
"Pray ye for me." Ah yes, it is easy to ask for 
the prayers of the Church — any one can do that. 
It is no sure evidence of the workings of Grace. 
Peter had urged him to pray for forgiveness. He 
begs them to pray for removal of punishment. 
And who does not want punishment to be turned 
aside? Who does not desire immunity from suf- 
fering? It requires no Grace in the heart to want 
to be kept out of hell. Peter had assured him that 
his heart was not right in the sight of God. He 
makes no mention of a desire of a change of heart, 
but only that he may be safe against impending 
calamity. We can find neither penitence, nor 
faith, nor prayer in his response. It is only an 
abject cry of fear. 

And oh, how sad is the fate which Peter pro- 
nounces upon this spurious convert! It is the fate 
of every Church member who is living in an un- 
converted state. Thou hast neither part nor lot in 
this matter. 

Thou didst desire the miraculous and extraordi- 
nary gifts of the Spirit. Thou lackest even His 
ordinary influences. Thou hast not even per- 



262 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

mitted that Spirit to come through Word or sacra- 
ment to regenerate thy heart. 

Thou knowest not even His renewing and sanc- 
tifying operations. Thou hast no part or lot at all 
in the Holy Ghost. Thou art an utter stranger to 
His life-giving and saving efficacy. Thou hast 
neither part nor lot in the forgiveness of sins, 
neither part nor lot in the kingdom of God. No 
part in Christ. No part in His purchased Redemp- 
tion. No place in heaven. Ah, Simon, Simon! 
Thou mayest have many other things. But what 
shall it profit? Will thy other possessions help 
thee in the hour and article of death? Can they 
shield and save thee in the day of judgment? 

Reader, have you a part and a lot in the redemp- 
tion that is in Christ Jesus? Your name may be 
on the Church-roll. But is it in the Book of Life? 
You may regularly hear and read the Word. But 
is it to you a savor of life unto life? If not, it is a 
savor of death unto death. You go regularly to the 
Lord's table. But do you find that Chris? s flesh 
is meat indeed, and that His blood is drink indeed? 
Or do you come unprepared, with impenitent and 
unbelieving heart, and thus eat and drink judg- 
ment to yourself ? Have you a real, conscious, liv- 
ing and blessed part and lot in Christ? 



SERMON XVII. 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 

Acts xxiv. 24, 25. 



Acts xxiv. 24, 23. And after certain days, when Felix came 
with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, 
and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. 

And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judg- 
ment to come, Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way for 
this time ; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. 



SERMON XVII. 

The Apostle Paul had been down to the city of 
Jerusalem. He had carried down money for the 
poor saints in that city, collected from the 
churches in Macedonia. It was the time of the 
Feast of Pentecost. Paul always kept these old 
festivals in their new spirit and significance. 
While worshipping in the temple he had been 
recognized by certain Asiatic Jews. These were 
carnally minded fellows, who had heard Paul 
preach in their own home, and had taken umbrage 
at his doctrine, and at him for preaching it. They 
became deeply enraged to see one who in their 
eyes was such an arch-heretic in the temple during 
the feast of Pentecost. They, therefore, "stirred 
up all the people and laid hands on hint, crying out: 
Men of Israel, help ! This is the man that teacheth 
all men everywhere against the people, and the law, 
and this place : and further brought Greeks also into 
the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. ' ' 

Paul was in imminent danger of being torn in 
pieces by the mob, and was only rescued by the 
quick and energetic interference of the captain of 
(265) 



266 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the guard of Roman soldiers stationed near the 
temple. The captain guarded him and permitted 
him to speak for himself from the steps of the 
castle. Paul made a straightforward defence of 
himself and his faith. The people heard him until 
he declared that he was sent by the Lord to preach 
unto the Gentiles. At this word the violence of 
the mob broke out afresh, and apparently to ap- 
pease them, the captain ordered Paul to be scourged. 
From this indignity and torture Paul saved him- 
self by declaring himself a Roman citizen. The 
captain now insisted that Paul should have a fair 
trial before the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the 
Jews. Here again Paul pleaded his own cause. 
The court broke up in a tumult, and the captain, 
' ''fearing lest Paul should have been pulled i?i pieces 
of them, commanded the soldiers to go down and to 
take him by force from among them, and to bring 
him into the castled 

And so Paul again escaped the lawless violence 
of his own countrymen. Chagrined because he 
had again escaped them, ''''certain of the Jews 
banded themselves together, and bound themselves 
under a curse, saying, that they would 7ieither eat 
nor drink till they had killed Paul. " But God was 
taking care of His servant. The conspiracy was 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 267 

reported to the captain. He at once arranged to 
transport Paul secretly and under a strong mili- 
tary escort to Cesarea, that he might have a fair 
trial before Felix, the Governor. 

This Felix had been procurator of Judea for 
about six years. Historians inform us that he had 
been a slave, but had obtained his freedom, had 
fought with distinction in the Roman army, and 
through the influence of his brother Pallas, who 
was quite a favorite at the court of the Emperor 
Claudius, had been appointed Governor of Judea. 
He had ruled the province in a mean, cruel, and 
profligate manner. He had crucified hundreds of 
turbulent Jews and false Messiahs. He had bribed 
certain assassins to murder the High Priest Jona- 
than. Tacitus tells us in one sentence, that "by 
every form of cruelty and lust, he wielded the 
power of a king in the spirit of a slave." We are 
further told that he was the husband of three wives. 
Drusilla, whom we meet as his wife on this occa- 
sion, he had enticed away from her lawful husband, 
Azizus, king of Emesa. He was therefore living 
in open adultery with this Jewish mistress. 

Before this Felix, Paul had had a hearing. It 
seems that the dignified, manly and straightfor- 
ward course of Paul, had, from the very beginning, 



268 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

made a favorable impression on the Governor. 
But, to please the Jews, Paul was kept a prisoner, 
though given as much liberty as possible for one in 
custody. He was probably chained to a Roman 
soldier, and with him was allowed to be more or 
less at large. 

Felix had probably told Drusilla about this un- 
usual, interesting, and eloquent prisoner. She, 
being a Jewess, and knowing something of the 
faith of her fathers, also of that new way which 
they called heresy, desired to see and hear this 
prisoner preacher of Christ. To gratify her, Paul 
was sent for and given the privilege of declaring to 
this royal and profligate couple the faith in Christ. 
Paul, like his Lord, was no respecter of persons. 
He always preached the truth, and declared the 
whole counsel of God, regardless of the fear or 
favor of man. What a temptation to flatter! Paul 
knew that Felix by a nod of his head could set him 
free, and by a word could hand him over to death. 
But he was not turned aside from a straightforward 
course. His discourse is not given. We are 
simply told that Felix sent for him, and heard him 
concerning the faith in Christ. No doubt Paul 
told him fully and plainly of that faith. And then, 
as an application of the doctrine, as an exhortation, 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 269 

growing out of and built on the preceding instruc- 
tion concerning the faith, Paul reasoned of right- 
eousness, temperance, and judgment to come. 

The result of this sermon was that Felix was 

ALMOST CONVERTED. 

And this shall be the subject of the present dis- 
course. To be almost converted is certainly to be 
in a very serious and critical state. It is to be near 
the kingdom of God, and yet not necessarily certain 
of a place in that kingdom. 

We inquire then, first of all, what does it mean 
to be almost converted ? 

It means, in the first place, that the mind has 
been enlightened in spiritual things. So it was 
with Felix. We read that he had a more perfect 
knowledge — or understanding — of that way, i. e. , 
the way that they called heresy, or the doctrines 
preached by Paul. During the six years that he 
had ruled among the Jews he had learned some- 
thing of their faith. He would learn still more 
from his Jewish wife Drusilla. Of the new way or 
Christianity, he must also have known something. 
It was now nearly thirty years since the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus, the coming of the Spirit, and the 
first preaching of the apostles. The first Gentile 



270 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

converts had been made eighteen years ago among 
the troops of that very city of Cesarea. This new 
way was therefore well known. It was every- 
where spoken against, and therefore everywhere 
spoken about. So Felix must have understood 
something about it even before Paul came. And 
now Paul had given that clear account and made 
that masterly defense in the presence of his Jewish 
accusers and of Felix. A second time Felix had 
sent for Paul that he might hear further for him- 
self and Drusilla, concerning the faith in Christ. 

His mind, therefore, was enlightened. He knew 
something about Christ and His redemption, and 
himself as a sinner, needing that redemption. 
And this is a vitally important step towards con- 
version. When that scribe came to Jesus and 
questioned Him about the law, and when Jesus saw 
that he answered discreetly, He said unto him, 
Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. His 
mind was enlightened, and therefore he was near 
the kingdom, or almost converted. 

When Paul was pleading before Agrippa, he 
appealed to Agrippa as one expert in all questions 
and customs which are a?nong the Jews. And again, 
" King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know 
that thou believest." The king's mind was en- 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 27 1 

lightened, and therefore he was almost persuaded 
to be a Christian. And so it always is. When 
the mind is enlightened by the Word of God; when 
the sinner is made to understand what he is, what 
he needs, where and how to get what he needs, 
then there is an important step taken towards con- 
version. But this divine illumination is not in 
itself conversion. 

A second step is when the conscience is aroused. 
In his application of the doctrine of Christ, Paul 
reasoned of righteousness, or uprightness, temper- 
ance, or chastity, and judgment to come. 

Before that unrighteous ruler whose reign was 
stained with rapine and blood, Paul reasoned of 
righteousness, right-doing, uprightness, moral char- 
acter. And so forcibly did he reason, so directly 
did he appeal to the conscience of his hearer, that 
that conscience was aroused from its torpor. And 
Felix felt, without Paul telling him : ' Hhou art the 
man, thou art verily guilty of gross and criminal 
unrighteousness. ' ' Unless thou seek to the right- 
eousness of this Christ now set before thee, thou 
art justly condemned. 

Paul reasoned of temperance. The word in the 
original means continence or chastity. Before this 
libidinous queen and her lustful paramour, Paul 



272 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

reasoned of the duty and beauty of a chaste life. 
Without Paul's pointing out their shameful 
breaches of morality, they quailed under his words, 
and conscience held before them their guilt. 

And finally Paul reasoned of a. judgment to come. 
Awful time! When every evil thought, every idle 
word, and every sinful deed, shall be brought to 
light and impartially judged. No wonder that the 
guilty and now fully awakened conscience of Felix 
spoke in thunder tones, and Felix trembled. Self- 
condemned and self-convicted, he sat pale with ex- 
citement. Surely the scales were turned. The 
prisoner preacher had become the judge. The 
Governor was the defendant. Alarmed and strick- 
en, he acknowledged to himself that he was guilty. 
When the conscience of the sinner is thus stirred 
and alarmed, then another important step is taken 
towards conversion. 

But more than this. We believe that the heart 
of the Governor was touched also. We believe that 
as he saw and felt his own guilt and miser}', he 
had some longings after deliverance and a better 
life. If his heart had not been touched and drawn, 
we believe he would have dismissed the Apostle in 
anger. But he did not. He simply intimated 
that he could bear no more now. But he wanted 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 273 

to hear more at another time. He was so deeply 
impressed that he wanted to think it all over. He 
hoped at some other time to learn more and become 
fully satisfied. 

Here was a third important step. The heart was 
moved and drawn. And when the heart is thus 
reached and impressed, when there go up from it 
unuttered yearnings after deliverance and righteous- 
ness, then surely Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. 
The sinner is almost converted. Surely, Felix was 
in a hopeful way. The mind was enlightened. 
The conscience was aroused. The heart was 
moved. What lacked he yet? One other faculty 
must be reached and changed. The will must give 
its assent. If it does, Felix will be entirely con- 
verted. 

Before we look, however, at the obstacles that 
often prevent an entire conversion, we inquire 
secondly into the causes that bring the sinner thus 
almost into the kingdom. 

The prime and original cause of all such experi- 
ences is always the Holy Spirit. He comes first to 
the sinner. He operates through the written and 
sacramental Word. As we have elsewhere shown, 
the Word is His organ and instrument. Through 
it He enlightens, convicts and draws. Through 
13 



274 N] 5W TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

the Word He operated on Felix. He convinced 
him of his own sin, of his need of another's right- 
eousness, and of a fearful looking for of judgment 
for all who are not clothed in the righteousness of 
the Substitute. And wherever a sinner is thus en- 
lightened, convinced, and drawn, it is always a 
work of the Spirit of God. It is Divine Grace 
reaching down to save him. And no one was ever 
thus reached and drawn towards the kingdom of 
God except by the Spirit through the Word. 

True, God sometimes uses other influences as 
helps to reach the sinner. He sends upon him 
grievous affliction. He gives him over to bitter 
losses and disappointments. He lays upon him 
His chastening hand. Some people imagine that 
such afflicting and- correcting dispensations convert 
the sinner. But this is a mistake. Affliction and 
correction carry no Divine Grace. They have no 
renewing or sanctifying power. They are only 
intended to drive the sinner to the Word and to 
make him attentive thereto. They are like the 
shepherd's crook. It cannot satisfy the hunger or 
thirst of the sheep, but he uses it to drive them to 
the green pastures and beside the still waters. The 
chastenings of the Lord are not His vehicles of 
Grace, but they drive to Word and Sacrament 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 275 

which are. In so far, and in so far only, are they 
helps in drawing the sinner towards the kingdom. 

Again, when there is a general interest in the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God. When 
others are coming to Christ. When friends, ac- 
quaintances and neighbors are finding Him, this 
also has a tendency to make the sinner think, 
to draw his attention to the neglected Word, to 
take him where that Word is preached. In the 
days of Felix there was a deep interest in these 
questions concerning the faith of Christ. Not only 
in Jerusalem, but in every city where the apostles 
had preached, no small stir was made about this 
new way. At Cesarea, Cornelius and his house- 
hold had long since embraced the new faith. 
Philip, the evangelist, with his four daughters who 
had the gift of prophecy, lived there. Other disci- 
ples also were there. There must have been a 
congregation, and regular services. All this may 
also have had an influence on Felix and his Jewish 
wife Drusilla, and induced them to send for Paul 
to hear more of this faith in Christ. And thus did 
Felix come to be almost converted. And thus are 
sinners still brought near to the kingdom. 

But not all who are almost converted become 
entirely converted. They refuse to take the deci- 



276 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

sive step. They decline to make the final sur- 
render. While the intellect, the conscience and 
the heart have all become interested, the will re- 
fuses, resists and rebels. And as long as the will 
does not entirely surrender, no matter what the 
knowledge, the conviction and the feelings may be, 
there is no real conversion. The final decision 
rests with the will. Its yielding is the decisive 
step in conversion. 

True, it is already influenced from above. When 
the Holy Spirit has reached the understanding, the 
conscience and the feelings of the heart, the will is 
more or less influenced. Divine Grace is at work 
upon it. With the help of that Grace, it can sur- 
render, turn to Christ and accept the proffered 
salvation. 

But while it can do this only in the strength 
given by the Holy Ghost, for no man can say that 
Jesus is the Christ, but by the Holy Ghost, it can 
also, without any outside assistance whatever, resist 
and refuse. While God, therefore, always comes 
first to man, and while man can do nothing except 
with the help that God gives, yet the final deter- 
mination rests with man, and on himself alone is 
the responsibility if he is not saved. 

We notice, therefore, thirdly, some of the ob- 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 277 

stacks that keep men who are almost converted 
from being entirely converted, or some of the in- 
fluences that determine the will in deciding against 
Christ. 

What are some of the dreadful hindrances that 
hold back persons who are not far from the king- 
dom of God, and finally shut them out from that 
kingdom? 

Very often people are brought to the very door 
of the kingdom, divine Grace has done a saving 
work in them, they are almost and all but converted, 
and yet they are not saved. They are kept out 
by holding on to one sin. They have one evil 
practice. They cherish it openly or secretly. 
They are in love with it. They feel, when reached, 
as described above, that it is dragging them down 
to hell. They may even cry out in anguish on 
account of the fearful hold it has on them. It has 
wound its frightful coils so tightly about their life. 
It seems burnt into the very fibre of their being. 
They are ready to cry out in agony, ' ' Oh, wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body 
of this death?" They rattle the chains of their 
slavery, and anon they clutch and kiss them as if 
they were cords that were drawing them to heaven. 
The question is forced upon them, Shall I give up 



278 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

entirely and forever this sin? The answer is, I 
cannot, because I will not. Angels' hands are 
reaching down to release them. They ask, Shall 
I yield? Shall I give np this sin? No; I will not. 
And with a determined effort they beat back the 
hand that is reaching down to save them. They 
were almost in the kingdom. They might have 
entered in. But that one sin, wilfully held on to, 
stands like an evil spirit between them and the 
kingdom, and shuts its gates against them. 

Oh, the power of one cherished and therefore un- 
forgiven sin ! It has kept thousands out of heaven 
when they were almost in. Felix was almost con- 
verted, but he would not give up his adultery 
with Drusilla. Herod heard the Word of God 
gladly from the Baptist's lips, and was drawn 
towards the kingdom, but he would not restore his 
brother Philip's wife. Judas, no doubt, had his 
better moments and his serious impressions, and 
felt himself drawn to the blessed Jesus. But he 
loved money, and was unwilling to give up that 
love. Ananias and Sapphira were drawn by the 
apostles' preaching, and wanted a place in the 
infant Church. But wanted to serve God and 
mammon, and lied to the Holy Ghost. That one 
sin kept them out of the church invisible. 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 279 

And is it not so still? Many even in the Church 
are cherishing some pet sin. They know it is stand- 
ing between them and their God. They sometimes 
weep over it, and tremble on account of it. But 
they will not give it up. Often almost converted,, 
they die unconverted and are lost. Others are 
kept out of the Church, though often on the point 
of going in and giving themselves to Christ, be- 
cause unwilling to give up one particular sin. 

Again, it may be bad company that holds such 
persons back. Some godless person has obtained 
a fatal influence over them. It may be more than 
one person. They are almost persuaded to be 
Christians. They are on the point of surrendering. 
Suddenly the thought comes, What would that com- 
panion say ? I would have to cut his acquaintance 
and give up his friendship, unless I could get him 
to go with me. No, I dread his displeasure. I am 
afraid of his ridicule. I could never face him again. 
I ought to be a Christian. I wish I were a Chris- 
tian. But, for the sake of that person /'// not yield. 
And thus these persons are under fhe fatal charm 
of some evil companion, and rather than break 
with that companion, they deliberately turn their 
backs on their Redeemer, and drive away the good 
Spirit who was striving to save them. The thought 



28o NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

of his associates may have had something to do 
with holding Felix back. It may also have kept 
him out of the kingdom of whom Jesus said, 
"Thou art not far from the kingdom." It has 
doubtless kept out thousands, and is doing so to-day. 
Others again are almost converted, but when it 
comes to the final decision they dread the sacrifices 
they will have to make. They would like to have 
the crown of life, but are unwilling to strive for it. 
They love the world, its pleasures, its honors, or 
its riches, so much that they dread giving up 
these pursuits. They shrink from the self-denial 
and cross-bearing which Jesus imposes. They 
dread the burdens of discipleship. They forget 
that the burdens which Jesus imposes are like the 
weights of a clock, the old man's staff, or the bur- 
dens of a bird's wing. Balaam wanted to die the 
death of the righteous, but was not willing to give 
up the wages of unrighteousness. The rich youth 
wanted eternal life, but he was unwilling to tear 
his heart from the love of his possessions. Demas 
was a disciple and even a fellow-helper with the 
apostles, but he forsook them, having loved this 
present world. And so thousands forfeit eternal 
life and the riches of heaven, because they dread 
giving up something that affords momentary grati- 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 281 

fication to the flesh. Almost converted sometimes, 
they are never entirely converted, because they fear 
the burdens, which are really no burdens to the 
true disciple. 

And finally, others are kept out of the kingdom 
because \hzy put off their entrance to a more con- 
venient season. Oh, what uncounted numbers are 
to-day in hell, who were more than once almost 
converted. They were not entirely converted be- 
cause they said to the Spirit, "Go thy way for this 
time ; when I have a convenient season I will call 
for thee.' 1 '' Thus did Felix grieve away the good 
Spirit. Many seasons came, for he sent for Paul 
often and communed or conversed with him. 

But he had deliberately shaken off serious im- 
pressions, resisted the Spirit who was trying to 
save, stifled conviction, hardened his own heart, 
and was now less and less open to good impres- 
sions. He became harder and harder. He wanted 
an unlawful bribe from Paul. He became more 
and more wicked, and came to a miserable end. 

It is indeed an awful thing to trifle with convic- 
tion. It is a serious thing to be almost converted, 
and then deliberately to turn back to the world. 
In most cases it means to deliberately start towards 
hell. 

13* 



282 NEW TESTAMENT CONVERSIONS. 

How sad the results of being almost converted, 
and yet not entirely! With Felix we have seen 
that the refusal was fatal. 

Every such opportunity unimproved leaves the 
sinner harder in heart and harder to reach. It 
gives him an impetus downward. 

And when finally such an one is lost, must it 
not be much harder to bear than if he had never 
been touched by divine Grace? How hard for the 
seafarer, after coining safely through the tempests 
and dangers of a long sea voyage, to be wrecked 
and drowned with the shore-lights in sight. And 
what must it be to have been so near heaven. To 
have almost looked inside. To have almost heard 
the rustle of angel wings and the music of angel 
harps — and then to find himself in hell. Almost — 
but lost. 

' ' Almost persuaded ' ' now to believe ; 
' ' Almost persuaded ' ' Christ to receive ; 
Seems now some soul to say, 
" Go, Spirit, go Thy way, 
Some more convenient day 
On Thee I'll call." 

" Almost persuaded," Come, come to-day; 
" Almost persuaded," Turn not away ; 



ALMOST CONVERTED. 283 

Jesus invites you here, 
Angels are lingering near, 
Prayers rise from hearts so dear : 
O wanderer, come. 

" Almost persuaded," harvest is past ! 
" Almost persuaded," doom comes at last ! 
"Almost " cannot avail ; 
"Almost" is but to fail ! 
Sad, sad, that bitter wail — 
" Almost— but lost ! " 



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